Dr. Lin on CNS Activity With HER2-Directed TKIs in HER2+ Breast Cancer

Nancy U. Lin, MD, associate professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, associate chief, Division of Breast Oncology, Susan F. Smith Center for Women’s Cancers, director, Metastatic Breast Cancer Program, and senior physician, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses central nervous system (CNS) activity with HER2-directed TKIs in HER2-positive breast cancer.

A previous study was conducted to examine the HER2-based TKI lapatinib (Tykerb) in combination with capecitabine in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer who have brain metastases, and results showed that the combination has CNS activity, says Lin. The study encouraged further research dedicated to determining whether other HER2 TKIs, such as neratinib (Nerlynx), also have CNS activity. This area of research is especially important because one of the key potential differentiating factors in developing new HER2-targeted TKIs is CNS activity, says Lin.

Several compounds are currently in later stages of development and data with those agents were reported at the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. If a compound shows CNS activity, that becomes an important differentiating factor, concludes Lin.