Dr. Harold J. Burstein on CDK4/CDK6 Inhibitor Abemaciclib in Breast Cancer

Harold J. Burstein, MD, PhD, Senior Physician, Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute discusses the results of MONARCH1, which looked at abemaciclib as monotherapy in patients with ER-positive breast cancer, after chemotherapy for advanced disease.

CDK4/CDK6 inhibitors, like abemaciclib, are a new class of drugs being investigated in advanced ER-positive breast cancer, said Burstein

In the study, the drug was shown to be reasonably well tolerated with some mild neutropenia and some incidence of lower GI-toxicity and diarrhea.

Abemaciclib induced a response rate of 19% in this patient population. The median progression-free survival (PFS) was six months and the median overall survival (OS) was 17.7 months.