Dr. Dent Discusses Ipatasertib in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Rebecca Dent, MD, senior consultant, National Cancer Center, Singapore, discusses ipatasertib in the treatment of patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).

Ipatasertib is an oral AKT inhibitor that showed a promising trend toward improving overall survival (OS) in addition to paclitaxel in findings from the phase II LOTUS study of patients with locally advanced or metastatic TNBC. For patients who received ipatasertib plus paclitaxel, median OS was 23.1 months compared with 18.4 months for patients randomized to placebo plus paclitaxel.

Compared to some of the older AKT inhibitors, which are allosteric, ipatasertib has much better tolerability, Dent explains. Preclinical and early data have shown that blocking AKT is impactful in patients with AKT mutations, those who have mutations upstream such as PIK3CA mutations, and those with loss of PTEN, says Dent. These are critical pathways in terms of survival for patients with breast cancer, as they are activated in about 40% of TNBC cases, she adds.