Moawia Mohammed Ali Elhassan, Associate Professor at University of Gezira, Consultant of Clinical and Radiation Oncology at Universal Hospital Sudan, shared a post on LinkedIn about a paper by Sudeep Gupta et al. published in Journal of Clinical Oncology:
“New Phase III Evidence on Platinum in TNBC: Survival Benefit Driven by Premenopausal Patients
The role of platinum in neoadjuvant therapy for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) has long been debated. A newly published phase III randomized trial in Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO) now provides important clarity.
A total of 720 patients were randomized to receive carboplatin (weekly AUC-2) + paclitaxel followed by anthracycline/cyclophosphamide vs. standard taxane–anthracycline therapy.
Key Findings:
- Carboplatin significantly improved OS (HR 0.74), increasing 5-year OS from 66.8% to 74.4%.
- In premenopausal (≤50 years) patients, carboplatin produced a clinically meaningful and statistically significant improvement in OS, EFS, and pCR. No benefit was observed in postmenopausal (>50 years) patients, highlighting a clear treatment–menopausal status interaction.
- Carboplatin led to more grade ≥3 myelosuppression, while non-hematologic toxicities were comparable between arms.
- This single-center trial recruited patients over a 10-year period, which may limit generalizability. Capecitabine and pembrolizumab were not incorporated due to the timing of CREATE-X and KEYNOTE-522 results. Nevertheless, even in the current era of capecitabine and immunotherapy, the question of whether platinum enhances survival within taxane–anthracycline regimens remains relevant—and this study provides meaningful evidence to inform that discussion.
This trial adds to the accumulating data that platinum should be incorporated into curative treatment of TNBC.“
Title: Addition of Carboplatin to Sequential Taxane-Anthracycline Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: A Phase III Randomized Controlled Trial
Authors: Sudeep Gupta, Nita Nair, Rohini W. Hawaldar, Shalaka Joshi, Seema Gulia, Tanuja Shet, Rajiv Sarin, Vani Parmar, Sangeeta Desai, Jaya Ghosh, Tabassum Wadasadawala, Vaibhav Vanmali, Tejal Panhale, Pallavi Parab, Asawari Patil, Garvit Chitkara, Sushmita Rath, Jyoti Bajpai, Rima Pathak, Palak Popat, Meenakshi Thakur, Rajendra A. Badwe
You can read the full article in Journal of Clinical Oncology.
