A Phase II Study of Pembrolizumab in Combination With Palliative Radiotherapy for Hormone Receptor-positive Metastatic Breast Cancer.

BACKGROUND

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether combining pembrolizumab with palliative radiation therapy (RT) improves outcomes in patients with hormone receptor-positive (HR) metastatic breast cancer (MBC).

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Eligible patients had HR/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative MBC; were candidates for RT to ≥ 1 bone, soft tissue, or lymph node lesion; and had ≥ 1 lesion outside the RT field. Patients received 200 mg pembrolizumab intravenously 2 to 7 days prior to RT and on day 1 of repeating 21-day cycles. RT was delivered to a previously unirradiated area in 5 treatments each of 4 Gy. The primary endpoint was objective response rate. The study used a 2-stage design: 8 women were enrolled into the first stage, and if at least 1 of 8 patients experienced an objective response, 19 more would be enrolled. Secondary endpoints included progression-free survival, overall survival, and safety. Exploratory endpoints included association of overall response rate with programmed death-ligand 1 status and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes.

RESULTS

Eight patients were enrolled in stage 1. The median age was 59 years, and the median prior lines of chemotherapy for metastatic disease was 2. There were no objective responses, and the study was closed to further accrual. The median progression-free survival was 1.4 months (95% confidence interval, 0.4-2.1 months), and the median overall survival was 2.9 months (95% confidence interval, 0.9-3.6 months). All-cause adverse events occurred in 87.5% of patients, including just 1 grade 3 event (elevation of aspartate aminotransferase).

CONCLUSIONS

RT combined with pembrolizumab did not produce an objective response in patients with heavily pre-treated HR MBC. Future studies should consider alternative radiation dosing and fractionation in patients with less heavily pre-treated HR MBC.