What is your approach to adjuvant HER-2 directed therapy in a patient who developed cardiotoxicity following neoadjuvant TC-HP?
Can these patients be re-challenged with Herceptin?
Answer from: Medical Oncologist at Academic Institution
Depending on the risk of the cancer and how bad the cardiotoxicity was, it may be worth trying to reinstitute HER2-directed therapy. Typically I hold HER2-directed therapy for a month at a time (until the EF gets to 50% or higher at which point I reinstitute) and involve a cardiologist familiar with...
Answer from: Medical Oncologist at Academic Institution
While I agree with a number of the comments above, including omission of pertuzumab if cardio-oncology feels comfortable with rechallenging her with trastuzumab, my recommendations would be tempered by her stage at presentation and response to neoadjuvant therapy - if she had clinical stage II disea...
Answer from: Medical Oncologist at Academic Institution
In addition to the answers above, I would also consider re-challenging with trastuzumab only (without pertuzumab) since the APHINITY data showed only a very small absolute difference in DFS and there is no overall survival benefit demonstrated to date with pertuzumab in the adjuvant setting.
Answer from: Medical Oncologist at Academic Institution
There is some data that beta blockers can help prevent some cardiac toxicity. I would wait until the EF was greater than 50%; make sure that any cardiovascular comorbidities are managed, and consider a low dose of carvedilol during therapy. However, the EF would need to be monitored after every cycl...
Answer from: Medical Oncologist at Academic Institution
Notably, most women on the pivotal adjuvant North American and HERA studies were able to successfully rechallenge with trastuzumab after a hold due to a "significant" LVEF change while receiving trastuzumab, so i am comfortable with the trastuzumab rechallenge strategy as was adopted on those studie...
Answer from: Medical Oncologist at Academic Institution
I agree with the recommendations above, omitting the pertuxumab and rechallenging with trastuzumab when EF recovers to >50%, optimizing cardiac care with beta blockers and/or ACE inhibitors. When rechallening with trastuzumab, one can consider weekly dosing at 2mg/kg at first, monitoring with ech...