Treatment outcomes were similar between Black and non-Black patients with Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) who received the drug neoadjuvant durvalumab (Imfinzi) plus chemotherapy, according to new clinical trial results.
Previous research demonstrated that the drug in combination with chemotherapy prior to surgery benefited patients with non-metastatic TNBC, but the study population did not reflect the racial/ethnic makeup of women who are more likely to develop the disease.
To better understand the efficacy of this treatment in Black patients, Lajos Pusztai, MD, of the Yale School of Medicine and his colleagues extended their trial to bring the proportion of Black patients closer to what it is in communities.
The result was no significant differences between Black and non-Black patients for the rates of metastatic recurrence, three-year overall survival, and three-year event-free survival.
“Our study demonstrates that if patients are given similar treatment and similar follow-up, the differences in outcomes between Black and non-Black patients are reduced,” said Pusztai. “By improving health care access and delivery, we could mitigate some of the health care disparities that exist in our society.”
- See “Benefits of Pre-surgical Immunotherapy Were Independent of Race in Patients with Aggressive Breast Cancer” on the American Association for Cancer Research website (July 29, 2022)
- See the abstract of the scientific paper “Clinical Outcomes and Immune Markers by Race in a Phase I/II Clinical Trial of Durvalumab Concomitant with Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Early-Stage TNBC” by Julia Foldi et al.
