Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Publication Date

2-1-2025

Journal

Breast Cancer Research and Treatment

Abstract

Purpose: Chemotherapy in combination with trastuzumab is the standard neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapy for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive breast cancer (BC). Assessing the regimens administered to patients with HER2-positive BC in the real world is lacking. We evaluated neoadjuvant and adjuvant regimen patterns among HER2-positive BC patients (2007 to 2021) identified in a health insurance claims database.

Methods: Female BC patients ≥ 18 years who received chemotherapy, surgery, and trastuzumab were chosen from Optum's de-identified Clinformatics® Data Mart database. Summary statistics, Joinpoint models, Kaplan-Meier survival curves, and Cox regression models were used to analyze the data.

Results: We identified 6474 patients (median age 60 years), 71.7% were White, 10.9% were Black, 8.6% were Hispanic, 4.1% were Asian, and 4.7% had unknown race/ethnicity. About 33.8% received neoadjuvant therapy and neoadjuvant therapy use increased with an annual percent change of 10.24% (P < .001). The three most common regimens were adjuvant docetaxel, carboplatin, and trastuzumab (TCH; 29.0%); adjuvant paclitaxel and trastuzumab (17.7%); and neoadjuvant TCH with pertuzumab followed by adjuvant trastuzumab (17.7%). The 5-year overall survival (OS) was 96% (95% CI, 95-96%). Patients had an increased risk of death if they were ≥ 59 years at diagnosis, had a health maintenance organization or other insurance plan, had dual Medicare/Medicaid eligibility, had a mastectomy, did not receive 18 cycles of trastuzumab, or received regimens not recommended by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.

Conclusion: Treatment regimen patterns for HER2-positive BC evolved in correspondence with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval of new drugs for this cancer and National Comprehensive Cancer Network treatment guidelines.

Keywords

Humans, Female, Breast Neoplasms, Middle Aged, Trastuzumab, Receptor, ErbB-2, Neoadjuvant Therapy, Chemotherapy, Adjuvant, Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols, Aged, Adult, Survival Rate, HER2-positive, Breast cancer, Neoadjuvant, Trastuzumab

DOI

10.1007/s10549-024-07552-y

PMID

39576449

PMCID

PMC11787242

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

11-22-2024

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Published Open-Access

yes

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