Positive topline results of the ongoing DESTINY-PanTumour02 Phase II trial (NCT04482309) showed that treatment with trastuzumab deruxtecan met the pre-specified target for objective response rate (the percentage of patients with a partial or complete response to treatment)  and demonstrated durable response in heavily pre-treated patients with HER2-expressing advanced solid tumours.

Trastuzumab deruxtecan is a novel antibody-drug conjugate that targets HER2 (a protein that is overexpressed in a variety of solid tumours). The trial evaluates the efficacy and safety of trastuzumab deruxtecanin patients with locally advanced, unresectable, or metastatic previously treated, HER2-expressing solid tumours not eligible for curative therapy, including bladder, cervical, endometrial, ovarian, biliary tract, pancreatic, and rare cancers. The promising results in the DESTINY-PanTumour02 trial suggest that it could be an effective treatment option for patients with HER2-positive tumours who have exhausted other treatment options.

The new data will be presented at a forthcoming medical meeting and shared with regulatory authorities worldwide.

Trastuzumab deruxtecan has already demonstrated its potential to improve outcomes for patients with HER2-targetable breast, gastric and lung cancers.^1-4 The DESTINY-PanTumour02 results mark an important step forward to understand the potential role of trastuzumab deruxtecan across multiple HER2-expressing to take this important medicine to as many patients as quickly as possible.⁴

References

1. Modi S, Saura C, Yamashita T, Park YH, Kim SB, Tamura K, Andre F, Iwata H, Ito Y, Tsurutani J, Sohn J. Trastuzumab deruxtecan in previously treated HER2-positive breast cancer. New England Journal of Medicine. 2020 Feb 13;382(7):610-21.
2. Shitara K, Bang YJ, Iwasa S, Sugimoto N, Ryu MH, Sakai D, Chung HC, Kawakami H, Yabusaki H, Lee J, Saito K. Trastuzumab deruxtecan in previously treated HER2-positive gastric cancer. New England Journal of Medicine. 2020 Jun 18;382(25):2419-30.
3. Li BT, Smit EF, Goto Y, Nakagawa K, Udagawa H, Mazières J, Nagasaka M, Bazhenova L, Saltos AN, Felip E, Pacheco JM. Trastuzumab deruxtecan in HER2-mutant non–small-cell lung cancer. New England Journal of Medicine. 2022 Jan 20;386(3):241-51.
4. Enhertu showed clinically meaningful and durable responses across multiple HER2-expressing tumour types in DESTINY-PanTumour02 phase II trial. News release. AstraZeneca. March 6, 2023. https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-centre/press-releases/

Author:
Ruel Jacob