Biomarker Analysis of the Phase III NALA Study of Neratinib + Capecitabine versus Lapatinib + Capecitabine in Patients with Previously Treated Metastatic Breast Cancer.

Abstract

Neratinib plus capecitabine (N+C) demonstrated significant progression-free survival (PFS) benefit in NALA (NCT01808573), a randomized phase III trial comparing N+C with lapatinib + capecitabine (L+C) in 621 patients with HER2-positive (HER2⁺) metastatic breast cancer (MBC) who had received ≥2 prior HER2-directed regimens in the metastatic setting. We evaluated correlations between exploratory biomarkers and PFS. Somatic mutations were evaluated by next-generation sequencing on primary or metastatic samples. HER2 protein expression was evaluated by central IHC, H-score, and VeraTag/HERmark. p95 expression (truncated HER2) was measured by VeraTag. HRs were estimated using unstratified Cox proportional hazards models. Four hundred and twenty samples had successful sequencing: 34.0% had <i>PIK3CA</i> mutations and 5.5% had <i>HER2 (ERBB2)</i> mutations. In the combined patient populations, <i>PIK3CA</i> mutations trended toward shorter PFS [wild-type vs. mutant, HR = 0.81; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.64-1.03], whereas <i>HER2</i> mutations trended toward longer PFS [HR = 1.69 (95% CI, 0.97-3.29)]. Higher HER2 protein expression was associated with longer PFS [IHC 3+ vs. 2+, HR = 0.67 (0.54-0.82); H-score ≥240 versus <240, HR = 0.77 (0.63-0.93); HERmark positive vs. negative, HR = 0.76 (0.59-0.98)]. Patients whose tumors had higher HER2 protein expression (any method) derived an increased benefit from N+C compared with L+C [IHC 3+, HR = 0.64 (0.51-0.81); H-score ≥ 240, HR = 0.54 (0.41-0.72); HERmark positive, HR = 0.65 (0.50-0.84)], as did patients with high p95 [p95 ≥2.8 relative fluorescence (RF)/mm², HR = 0.66 (0.50-0.86) vs. p95 < 2.8 RF/mm², HR = 0.91 (0.61-1.36)]. <i>PIK3CA</i> mutations were associated with shorter PFS whereas higher <i>HER2</i> expression was associated with longer PFS. Higher HER2 protein expression was also associated with a greater benefit for N+C compared with L+C.