Kefah Mokbel, Professor of Medicine at Cardiff University School of Medicine, shared on LinkedIn:
“How patients feel and function matters alongside how long treatment controls their cancer.
Newly published in The Oncologist, the patient-reported outcomes from ASCENT-03 add an important perspective to the previously reported progression-free survival benefit of sacituzumab govitecan (SG).
Among 558 patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer who were not candidates for PD-(L)1 inhibitors, first-line SG showed:
- Better physical functioning at week 25 versus chemotherapy, with a between-group difference of 6.89 points (95% CI, 3.50–10.28).
- Favorable changes in role functioning, global health status/quality of life, fatigue, pain, and dyspnea.
- Similar time to meaningful deterioration in fatigue between treatment groups.
The trade-off deserves attention: diarrhea outcomes favored chemotherapy, as did time to deterioration in nausea/vomiting. Nevertheless, the authors concluded that gastrointestinal side effects were manageable and did not adversely affect functioning, long-term quality of life, or treatment tolerability.
Together with the efficacy findings, these results support the authors’ conclusion that SG represents a new first-line standard of care for this specific patient population.
A valuable reminder that patient-reported outcomes are central to understanding the benefits and burdens of treatment.
Antibody–drug conjugates (ADCs) are transforming cancer care – not only by improving clinical outcomes, but also by preserving or improving quality of life. These ASCENT-03 findings reinforce the importance of both: how well patients live matters alongside how effectively we treat their cancer.”
Title: Patient-reported outcomes from ASCENT-03: sacituzumab govitecan vs chemotherapy in advanced triple-negative breast cancer
Authors: Kevin Punie, Sara M. Tolaney, Sara A. Hurvitz, Carlos Barrios, Andreas Schneeweiss, Joohyuk Sohn, Eriko Tokunaga, Adam Brufsky, Yeon Hee Park, Binghe Xu, Roberto Hegg, Mafalda Oliveira, Alessandra Fabi, Yuanhui Zhang, Hao Wang, Yutian Mu, Rosemary Delaney, Javier Cortés.
Other articles about Kefah Mokbel on OncoDaily.