Clinical trial finds adding camrelizumab to neoadjuvant chemo beneficial in triple-negative breast cancer

The addition of camrelizumab to neoadjuvant chemotherapy improves pathological complete response for patients with early or locally advanced triple-negative breast cancer, according to a study published online Dec. 13 in the Journal of the American Medical Association to coincide with the annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held from Dec. 10 to 13 in San Antonio.

Li Chen, M.D., from the Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, and colleagues examined the efficacy and adverse events of camrelizumab plus chemotherapy versus placebo plus chemotherapy as neoadjuvant therapy in a randomized, Phase III trial involving 441 patients with early or locally advanced triple-negative breast cancer.

Patients were randomly assigned to receive camrelizumab 200 mg or placebo combined with chemotherapy every two weeks (222 and 219 patients, respectively).

The researchers found that pathological complete response was achieved in 56.8 and 44.7 percent of patients in the camrelizumab-chemotherapy and the placebo-chemotherapy groups, respectively (rate difference, 12.2 percent).

Adverse events of grade 3 or higher occurred in 89.2 and 83.1 percent of patients in the camrelizumab-chemotherapy and placebo-chemotherapy groups, respectively, in the neoadjuvant phase; serious adverse events occurred in 34.7 and 22.8 percent, respectively; and fatal adverse events occurred in 0.9 percent of those in the camrelizumab-chemotherapy group.

“The benefits of camrelizumab-chemotherapy with respect to pathologic complete response were generally consistent across subgroups,” the authors write.

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