Real-World Analysis of Adverse Events in Patients With Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Receiving Therapy per...

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive subtype of breast cancer. Early-stage, high-risk patients with TNBC are treated with chemotherapy and pembrolizumab per the KEYNOTE-522 regimen. This report examines real-world clinical effectiveness and toxicity of this regimen.

This 19-site retrospective analysis included all patients who received at least one dose of the KEYNOTE-522 regimen. Safety, efficacy, and health care encounters were collected.

675 patients from 19 sites in the United States who received chemotherapy and pembrolizumab for early-stage TNBC were included. 547 (81.0%) patients underwent surgery and 250 (54.7%) patients had a pathologic complete response (pCR). No baseline characteristics were predictive of pCR status. 224 patients (33.2%) had an adverse drug event resulting in ≥1 dose reduction of chemotherapy and were significantly more likely to have residual disease. Immune-related adverse events (irAEs) were observed in 388 (57.5%) patients and grade 3+ irAEs were observed in 176 (26.1%) patients. There was no difference in pCR status between provider's choice chemotherapy schedules. There was no difference of pCR rate between Black and White patients (55.6% v 51.6%, P = .489). White patients were significantly more likely to have any grade and grade 3+ irAEs. Older patients (age ≥65 years) had similar pCR rates compared with younger patients; however, older patients were significantly more likely to have grade 3+ irAEs.

In this multi-institutional real-world cohort, we observed a lower pCR rate, higher rates of toxicity, frequent emergency health care utilization, and the reporting of rare irAEs at higher frequency than the KEYNOTE-522 regimen. These findings have important implications for clinical management of patients with early-stage TNBC and warrant further validation with real-world data sets.