Steger, Guenther G.

526 Background: The PALLAS trial (NCT02513394) investigated the efficacy of the addition of palbociclib (palbo) to standard adjuvant endocrine therapy (ET) to reduce breast cancer recurrence. Previous analyses of this trial have not shown significant benefit of combination palbo+ET over ET alone. Given prior data showing that extent of neutropenia is associated with response to palbo and other cell cycle-specific therapies, we evaluated whether extent of neutropenia could identify responders to palbo in the adjuvant setting. Methods: PALLAS is a global, open-label, phase III trial that randomized patients (pts) with stage II-III hormone-receptor positive, HER2-negative breast cancer to receive ET for ≥5 years with or without standard-dose palbo for 2 years in 28-day cycles. The primary endpoint is invasive disease-free survival (iDFS). For this exploratory analysis, the palbo population was classified into pts with treatment-emergent high-grade neutropenia (HGN) with maximum grade ≥3 (absolute neutrophil count <1000), or low-grade/no neutropenia (LGN) with maximum grade <2; these groups were compared to each other and to the ET alone group for 5-year iDFS outcomes. Logistic regression examined individual baseline characteristics associated with HGN during the first 3 cycles within the palbo group. Impact of HGN during the first 3, 6, and 12 cycles on iDFS was tested using univariate and multivariable landmark Cox regression. Results: The safety population included 5736 pts, 2840 allocated to palbo+ET, 2896 to ET alone. Prior publications reported no new safety signals, low rates of serious infection, and no grade 5 treatment-related events. The palbo+ET group consisted of 1006 (35.4%) LGN and 1834 (64.6%) HGN. 5-year iDFS results are shown in the table. Pts who received palbo+ET and developed HGN by the end of cycle 6 had significantly improved 5-year iDFS compared to those who received ET alone (p=0.04), which remained statistically significant when adjusting for body mass index (BMI), prior chemotherapy, and race. Multivariable logistic regression showed lower BMI, prior chemotherapy, Asian race, and prior mastectomy were significantly associated with HGN (all p<0.05). Conclusions: In this exploratory analysis of the phase III PALLAS adjuvant trial, addition of palbo to ET appeared to be superior to ET alone in pts who developed HGN in the first 6 cycles of treatment but not in those who had LGN. These findings are consistent with observations in the metastatic setting suggesting that neutropenia could be a useful biomarker for palbo concentration and efficacy. Clinical trial information: NCT02513394 . Maximum grade neutropenia measured at end of cycle: 5-year iDFS Palbo+ET HGN (%) Palbo+ET LGN (%) ET alone (%) Hazard Ratio p-value 3 84.9 84.4 1.06 0.54 84.9 82.9 1.17 0.06 6 85.6 84.9 1.08 0.44 85.6 83.4 1.19 0.04 12 86.3 85.9 1.06 0.57 86.3 85.0 1.12 0.20

Abstract Background The PALLAS trial investigated the addition of palbociclib to standard adjuvant endocrine therapy reduces breast cancer recurrence. This pre-specified analysis was conducted to determine whether adjuvant palbociclib benefited patients diagnosed with lower risk stage IIA disease compared to those with higher stage disease. Methods PALLAS was an international, multicenter, randomized, open-label, phase III trial, representing a public-private partnership between Pfizer, the Austrian Breast Cancer Study Group and, the U.S. ALLIANCE Foundation. Patients diagnosed with stage II-III, hormone-receptor-positive, HER2/neu negative breast cancer who were within 12 months of diagnosis, and had completed all definitive therapy aside from endocrine therapy, which was started within 6 months prior to study entry. All patients were required to submit a formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tumor block. Patients were randomly assigned 1:1 to receive standard adjuvant endocrine therapy (of physicians’ choice) for at least 5 years with or without 2 years of Palbociclib, administered orally at a starting dose of 125 mg daily, given for 21 days followed by a 7-day break. Results A total of 5,796 patients with HR+/HER2- early breast cancer (including 1,010 with stage IIA) were enrolled. Median follow-up was 50 months for stage IIA patients and 43.1 months overall. In the stage IIA cohort, four-year iDFS in the palbociclib arm was 92.9% versus 92.1% for ET alone (HR 0.75, 95%CI 0.48–1.19, p = 0.23). There was no differential benefit by histologic grade, chemotherapy receipt, age, or anatomic/clinical risk. Additionally, no benefit to palbociclib was seen in this cohort in invasive breast cancer-free survival (iBCFS), locoregional relapse-free survival (LRFS), distant relapse-free survival (DRFS), or overall survival (OS). For the stage IIB/III patients, 4-year iDFS was 85.3% for palbociclib + ET versus 83.6% for ET alone (HR 0.91, 95% CI 0.77–1.07, p = 0.24). Conclusions and Relevance: While there were substantial differences in outcome for stage IIA versus IIB/III patients at 4 years of follow-up, the addition of 2 years of palbociclib did not improve outcomes for patients, regardless of stage. Trial Registration: The study was registered on Clinicaltrials.gov on July 31, 2015, and was assigned the clinical trial number (NCT02513394).

Abstract Background. The phase 3 PALLAS trial (NCT02513394) compared two years of the CDK4/6 inhibitor palbociclib with endocrine therapy of provider choice, versus endocrine therapy alone, as adjuvant treatment for patients with Stage II-III hormone receptor-positive HER2-negative (HR+/HER2-) breast cancer. Genomic subtype (PAM50 intrinsic subtype) measured from whole-transcriptome RNA sequencing data was defined in the protocol of the PALLAS trial as the primary biomarker for analysis of prediction and prognosis. Clinical data have been previously presented (Gnant et al, JCO 2022), and the trial now has 5-year median follow-up. Methods. As part of trial eligibility, all participants in PALLAS provided a tumor tissue block prior to randomization (surgical if primary resection, core biopsy if neoadjuvant treatment) for translational analyses (TRANS-PALLAS). The biorepository and laboratory were blinded to identity and processed samples in random order, to minimize bias. Nucleic acids were extracted from samples with sufficient tumor tissue and cellularity (&gt;25 mm2 with ≥20% cancer nuclei). The Genome Sequencing Center at Washington University St. Louis performed whole-transcriptome RNA sequencing. Libraries were prepared from 1 µg DNase-1 treated total RNA, if total RNA DV200 &gt;28 (Agilent Bioanalyzer), using an unbiased library protocol of RNA HyperPrep kit with RiboErase (HMR) (Kapa Biosystems, Wilmington, MA). 100 bp paired-end sequencing was performed on NovaSeq 6000 using S4 Reagent Kit (Illumina, San Diego, CA), with 48 libraries pooled per lane. Intrinsic subtype was determined using Bioclassifier package (Research PAM50 script, Parker et al.) only for the analysis population of primary breast cancer samples that had not been exposed to prior neoadjuvant therapy. Invasive disease-free survival (IDFS) will be visualized using Kaplan-Meier plots, with log-rank test between groups. Cox models of proportional hazards will be developed to evaluate prognosis adjusted for known clinical covariates, or for predictive interactions. The pre-defined level of significance is a two-sided 0.05. Results. From the total study population of 5796 enrolled patients, 4655 tissue blocks had sufficient tumor content to process for RNA, with 3931 yielding sufficient RNA for sequencing, and 2669/4655 (57.3%) submitted tissue blocks had DV200 ≥28 and were successfully sequenced. Clinical unblinding revealed 2370 unique patients (1182 in the palbociclib treatment arm and 1188 in the control arm) with intrinsic subtype defined from their untreated primary tumor: 1555 (65.6%) luminal A, 287 (12.1%) luminal B, 167 (7.0%) HER2-enriched, 310 (13.1%) basal-like, 51 (2.2%) normal-like. We will report the results for association of molecular subtype, proliferation score, and Risk of Recurrence (ROR) scores with invasive disease-free survival (IDFS) by treatment arm at the meeting. Conclusions. The TRANS-PALLAS cohort represents one of the largest biorepositories of HR+/HER2- early breast cancer reflecting contemporary systemic management in the framework of a prospectively randomized global trial. Required tumor block submission in this phase 3 trial yielded data from unbiased whole-transcriptome RNA sequencing of the primary tumor prior to treatment from 41% of the PALLAS participants. The proportion of luminal A cancers was unexpectedly high (66%), indicating a lower-risk distribution of cancers in this population. The planned analyses of prediction and prognosis are ongoing and those results will be presented at the time of the meeting. Support: AFT, ABCSG, Pfizer, ECOG-ACRIN, NSABP Foundation, GBG, BIG; Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT02513394; https://acknowledgments.alliancefound.org Citation Format: Daniel Stover, Dominik Hlauschek, Erica Mayer, W. Fraser Symmans, Mark Watson, Iros Barozzi, Martin Filipits, Karla Ballman, Meritxell Bellet- Ezquerra, Justin Balko, Gabor Rubovszky, Nicholas Zdenkowski, Adam Brufsky, Guenther Steger, Claudine Isaacs, Sibylle Loibl, Fernando Henao, Meredith Regan, Yuan Liu, Christian Fesl, Patrick O'Brien, Angela DeMichele, Michael Gnant, Otto Metzger. Protocol-defined biomarker analysis in the PALLAS (AFT-05) adjuvant trial: Genomic subtype derived from RNA sequencing of HR+/HER2- early breast cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2023 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2023 Dec 5-9; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(9 Suppl):Abstract nr GS03-07.

PURPOSE BMI affects breast cancer risk and prognosis. In contrast to cytotoxic chemotherapy, CDK4/6 inhibitors are given at a fixed dose, irrespective of BMI or weight. This preplanned analysis of the global randomized PALLAS trial investigates the impact of BMI on the side-effect profile, treatment adherence, and efficacy of palbociclib. METHODS Patients were categorized at baseline according to WHO BMI categories. Neutropenia rates were assessed with univariable and multivariable logistic regression. Time to early discontinuation of palbociclib was analyzed with Fine and Gray competing risk models. Unstratified Cox models were used to investigate the association between BMI category and time to invasive disease-free survival (iDFS). 95% CIs were derived. RESULTS Of 5,698 patients included in this analysis, 68 (1.2%) were underweight, 2,082 (36.5%) normal weight, 1,818 (31.9%) overweight, and 1,730 (30.4%) obese at baseline. In the palbociclib arm, higher BMI was associated with a significant decrease in neutropenia (unadjusted odds ratio for 1-unit change, 0.93; 95% CI, 0.91 to 0.94; adjusted for age, race ethnicity, region, chemotherapy use, and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group at baseline, 0.93; 95% CI, 0.92 to 0.95). This translated into a significant decrease in treatment discontinuation rate with higher BMI (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] for 10-unit change, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.67 to 0.83). There was no significant improvement in iDFS with the addition of palbociclib to ET in any weight category (normal weight HR, 0.84; 95% CI, 0.63 to 1.12; overweight HR, 1.10; 95% CI, 0.82 to 1.49; and obese HR, 0.95; 95% CI, 0.69 to 1.30) in this analysis early in follow-up (31 months). CONCLUSION This preplanned analysis of the PALLAS trial demonstrates a significant impact of BMI on side effects, dose reductions, early treatment discontinuation, and relative dose intensity. Additional long-term follow-up will further evaluate whether BMI ultimately affects outcome.

Abstract Background Advances in the multidisciplinary care of hormone-receptor positive (HR+) early breast cancer (eBC) have markedly improved clinical outcomes: however, disease recurrence may still occur, particularly in patients (pts) with moderate or high-risk cancers at the time of diagnosis. The use of CDK4/6 inhibitors (CDK4/6i) combined with endocrine therapy (ET) is a standard of care for advanced breast cancer, supporting the rationale to study CDK4/6i in the eBC setting. Here we present the final protocol-planned analyses of the global phase III PALLAS trial investigating whether the addition of the CDK4/6i palbociclib (P) to adjuvant ET improves outcomes over ET alone for HR+/HER2- eBC. Methods PALLAS (PALbociclib CoLlaborative Adjuvant Study, NCT02513394) is a randomized phase III open-label trial in which pts with stage II-III HR+/HER2- eBC were randomized to receive either 2 years of P with adjuvant ET (P+ET) or ET alone. The primary endpoint is invasive disease-free survival (iDFS); secondary endpoints include distant recurrence-free survival (DRFS), locoregional recurrence-free survival (LRRFS), overall survival (OS), and safety. Mandatory biospecimen collection has supported the creation of an expansive translational science program, and long-term follow-up is planned. Revised sample size calculations required recruitment of 5600 pts in order to detect a 25% iDFS improvement in patients receiving P+ET with 85% power; this final protocol-planned analysis was planned after 469 iDFS events. Results From September 1, 2015 to November 30, 2018, 5,761 pts (median age 52 years, range 22-90) were randomized in 406 centers in 21 countries worldwide. 1,014 (17.6%) had stage IIA disease (capped) and 4,728 (82.1%) stages IIB/III. 4,754 (82.5%) had received prior (neo)adjuvant chemotherapy. After a protocol-planned 2nd interim analysis in May 2020 crossed the futility threshold, 349 P+ET pts still on active treatment stopped P and were transferred to follow-up. At the time of final analysis cutoff date (November 20, 2020), after a median follow-up of 31 months and 516 events recorded, iDFS was similar between the two arms, with 3-year iDFS of 89.3% (95% CI: 87.8-90.6%) for Palbo+ET, and 89.4% (88.0-90.7%) for ET alone (hazard ratio 0.96, 95% CI: 0.81-1.14). There was no statistically significant difference in secondary outcome endpoints. Subgroup analyses revealed no significant interactions between treatment effect and other factors (including risk category). The safety profile of P was as expected, with grade 3 or 4 neutropenia the most common side effect (safety population: 1759/2841 [61.9%] vs 11/2902 [0.4%]). Overall 42% of pts. discontinued P prior to the planned 2-year duration, 28.2% of Palbo+ET pts discontinued therapy due to adverse events, without an observed impact on survival outcomes. Conclusions Now with the full number of events, this analysis of the PALLAS trial shows that the addition of 2 years of P to ongoing adjuvant ET did not improve survival endpoints for pts with stage II-III HR+/HER2- eBC. Whether P is beneficial in the adjuvant setting for certain sub-groups of pts will be further evaluated with longer-term follow-up and by the ongoing translational science program. Support: ABCSG; AFT; Pfizer; ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02513394; https://www.abcsg.org; https://acknowledgments.alliancefound.org Citation Format: Michael Gnant, Amylou C Dueck, Sophie Frantal, Miguel Martin, Hal Burstein, Richard Greil, Peter Fox, Antonio C Wolff, Arlene Chan, Eric Winer, Christian Singer, Kathy Miller, Marco Colleoni, Michelle Naughton, Gabor Rubovszky, Judith Bliss, Ingrid A Mayer, Guenther G Steger, Zbigniew Nowecki, Olwen Hahn, Norman Wolmark, Hope Rugo, Georg Pfeiler, Hannes Fohler, Otto Metzger, Céline Schurmans, Kathy P Theall, Dongrui R Lu, Kathleen Tenner, Christian Fesl, Angela DeMichele*, Erica L Mayer, *shared last authorship. Adjuvant palbociclib in HR+/HER2- early breast cancer: Final results from 5,760 patients in the randomized phase III PALLAS trial [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2021 Dec 7-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(4 Suppl):Abstract nr GS1-07.

PURPOSE Palbociclib is a cyclin-dependent kinase 4 and 6 inhibitor approved for advanced breast cancer. In the adjuvant setting, the potential value of adding palbociclib to endocrine therapy for hormone receptor–positive breast cancer has not been confirmed. PATIENTS AND METHODS In the prospective, randomized, phase III PALLAS trial, patients with hormone receptor–positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2–negative early breast cancer were randomly assigned to receive 2 years of palbociclib (125 mg orally once daily, days 1-21 of a 28-day cycle) with adjuvant endocrine therapy or adjuvant endocrine therapy alone (for at least 5 years). The primary end point of the study was invasive disease-free survival (iDFS); secondary end points were invasive breast cancer–free survival, distant recurrence-free survival, locoregional cancer-free survival, and overall survival. RESULTS Among 5,796 patients enrolled at 406 centers in 21 countries worldwide over 3 years, 5,761 were included in the intention-to-treat population. At the final protocol-defined analysis, at a median follow-up of 31 months, iDFS events occurred in 253 of 2,884 (8.8%) patients who received palbociclib plus endocrine therapy and in 263 of 2,877 (9.1%) patients who received endocrine therapy alone, with similar results between the two treatment groups (iDFS at 4 years: 84.2% v 84.5%; hazard ratio, 0.96; CI, 0.81 to 1.14; P = .65). No significant differences were observed for secondary time-to-event end points, and subgroup analyses did not show any differences by subgroup. There were no new safety signals for palbociclib in this trial. CONCLUSION At this final analysis of the PALLAS trial, the addition of adjuvant palbociclib to standard endocrine therapy did not improve outcomes over endocrine therapy alone in patients with early hormone receptor–positive breast cancer.

Abstract Background monarchE is a phase 3, open-label study evaluating abemaciclib combined with endocrine therapy (ET) compared to ET alone in patients with node positive, HR+, HER2-, high risk early breast cancer (EBC) that resulted in a statistically significant improvement in invasive disease-free survival (IDFS) at a pre-planned interim analysis. Following the positive interim analysis, patients continued to be followed for IDFS, distant recurrence, and overall survival. Methods After surgery and, as indicated, radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy, 5,637 patients with HR+, HER2-, high risk EBC were randomized (1:1) to standard of care adjuvant ET with or without abemaciclib (150 mg BD for 2 years). Patients with ≥4 positive nodes, or 1-3 nodes and either grade 3 disease, tumor size ≥5 cm, or central Ki-67 ≥20% were eligible. Here we present results of the primary outcome IDFS analysis which was planned after approximately 390 IDFS events. Results At the primary outcome analysis, median follow-up was approximately 19 months in both arms (an increase of 3.5 months from the interim analysis). A total of 1437 (25.5%) patients had completed the 2-year treatment period; 3281 (58.2%) were still in the 2-year treatment period. With 395 IDFS events observed in the intent-to-treat population, abemaciclib plus ET continued to demonstrate superior IDFS versus ET alone, with a 28.7% reduction in the risk of developing invasive disease (p=.0009; HR = 0.713; 95% CI = 0.583, 0.871). Two-year IDFS rates were 92.3% in the abemaciclib plus ET arm and 89.3% in the ET alone arm. There was a consistent benefit of abemaciclib in all prespecified subgroups. The addition of abemaciclib to ET also resulted in an improvement in distant relapse-free survival (DRFS). Overall survival was immature at the time of analysis. A key secondary endpoint was efficacy in patients with centrally assessed high Ki-67 (≥20%) (Ki-67H) (n=2498). Disease characteristics were well balanced between the arms of this population. Abemaciclib plus ET demonstrated superior IDFS vs ET alone, with a 30.9% reduction in risk of developing invasive disease (p=.0111; HR = 0.691; 95% CI = 0.519, 0.920) and 2-year IDFS rates of 91.6% and 87.1%, respectively. An improvement in DRFS treatment effect was also observed in the Ki-67H population. At the time of data cutoff, the median treatment duration of abemaciclib was 17.3 months and the median duration of ET was balanced between the arms (18.3 months in the abemaciclib arm and 18.7 months in the ET alone arm). Safety was consistent with the results at the interim IDFS analysis and with the known safety profile of abemaciclib. Conclusions At the primary outcome analysis, with a median follow-up of approximately 19 months, abemaciclib combined with ET continued to demonstrate a clinically meaningful improvement in IDFS in patients with HR+, HER2-, node-positive, high risk, EBC with a statistically significant improvement in IDFS in patients with central Ki-67 ≥20%. ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03155997 Table 1: PrimaryOutcome EfficacyIntent-to-Treat PopulationIntent-to-Treat PopulationKi-67 ≥20% (Ki-67H) PopulationKi-67 ≥20% (Ki-67H) PopulationEndpointAbemaciclib + ET N=2808ET alone N=2829Abemaciclib + ET N=1262ET alone N=1236IDFS# events, n (%)163 (5.8)232 (8.2)82 (6.5)115 (9.3)log rank P value, HR (95% CI)p=.0009 0.713 (0.583, 0.871)p=.0111 0.691 (0.519, 0.920)Rate (%) at 2 years (95% CI)92.3 (90.9, 93.5)89.3 (87.7, 90.7)91.6 (89.4, 93.4)87.1 (84.3, 89.5)Difference (%) in 2-year rates (95% CI)3 (1.1, 5.0)4.5 (1.2, 7.7)DRFS# events, n (%)131 (4.7)193 (6.8)65 (5.2)102 (8.3)log rank P value, HR (95% CI)p=.0009 0.687 (0.551, 0.858)0.609 (0.445, 0.833)Rate (%) at 2 years (95% CI)93.8 (92.6, 94.9)90.8 (89.3, 92.1)93.6 (91.6, 95.1)88.5 (85.7, 90.7)Difference (%) in 2-year rates (95%CI)3 (1.2, 4.8)5.1 (2.1, 8.1) Citation Format: Joyce A. O'Shaughnessy, Stephen Johnston, Nadia Harbeck, Masakazu Toi, Young-Hyuck Im, Mattea Reinisch, Zhimin Shao, Pirkko Liisa Kellokumpu Lehtinen, Chiun-Sheng Huang, Alexey Tryakin, Matthew Goetz, Hope S Rugo, Elzbieta Senkus, Laura Testa, Michael Andersson, Kenji Tamura, Guenther G. Steger, Lucia Del Mastro, Joanne Cox, Tammy Forrester, Sarah Sherwood, Xuelin Li, Ran Wei, Miguel Martin, Priya Rastogi. Primary outcome analysis of invasive disease-free survival for monarchE: abemaciclib combined with adjuvant endocrine therapy for high risk early breast cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Virtual Symposium; 2020 Dec 8-11; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2021;81(4 Suppl):Abstract nr GS1-01.