Efficacy and safety of CT-P6 versus reference trastuzumab in HER2-positive early breast cancer: updated results of a randomised phase 3 trial

Purpose Neoadjuvant CT-P6, a trastuzumab biosimilar, demonstrated equivalent efficacy to reference trastuzumab in a phase 3 trial of HER2-positive early-stage breast cancer (EBC) (NCT02162667). We report post hoc analyses evaluating pathological complete response (pCR) and breast pCR alongside additional efficacy and safety measures. Methods Following neoadjuvant treatment and surgery, patients received adjuvant CT-P6 or trastuzumab (6 mg/kg) every 3 weeks for ≤ 1 year. Results In total, 271 and 278 patients received CT-P6 and trastuzumab, respectively. pCR and breast pCR rates were comparable between treatment groups regardless of age, region, or clinical stage. Overall, 47.6% (CT-P6) and 52.2% (trastuzumab) of patients experienced study drug-related treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs), including 17 patients reporting heart failure (CT-P6: 10; trastuzumab: 7). Two CT-P6 and three trastuzumab patients discontinued adjuvant treatment due to TEAEs. Conclusion Adjuvant CT-P6 demonstrated comparable efficacy and safety to trastuzumab at 1 year in patients with HER2-positive EBC, supporting CT-P6 and trastuzumab comparability. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s00280-019-03920-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.