Sanitation: Combo-drugs improve breast cancer outcomes

Health Rounds

By Nancy Lapid, Health Science Editor

Hello Health Rounds readers! Today we highlight several more studies with positive implications for cancer patients that were presented at the recent European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) meeting in Berlin.

See these breaking news stories from our Reuters team: US could have saved $1.5 billion on costs with drug pricing linked to benchmark; Trump administration plans new probe into global drug pricing; US Medicare agency recalls furloughed staff to support open enrollment and WHO leads medical evacuation of 41 critical patients out of Gaza.

Also: Nigerian lawmakers launch probe into $4.6 bln health grants as disease deaths rise; Mexico hopes to eradicate screwworm with new sterile fly plant; England's resident doctors to strike in November and World Food Prize winners call for doubling of aid to combat hunger.

Industry Updates

Profit reports from Boston Scientific, Thermo Fisher, Molina Healthcare, West Pharma, Galderma, Molina, and Roche.
US FDA approve GSK's blood cancer treatment.
Moderna halts development of birth defect vaccine.
Eli Lilly allows Cipla to sell weight loss drug under new brand.
Innovent signs cancer therapy deal with Japan's Takeda.
Alkermes enters sleep medicine market with $2.1 billion deal.
Staar Surgical's top investor calls meeting to remove directors.
Novavax signs $60 million agreements to trim US portfolio.
Alector shares plunge after dementia drug fails to slow disease.
Metagenomi to develop gene-editing tools.
SheMed raises $50 million in new funding for UK expansion.
UnitedHealth's Optum unit CFO has stepped down.

Health insurance premiums for US families rose to $27,000 in 2025

REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci

Annual premiums for U.S. families with employer-sponsored health insurance in 2025 rose 6% to nearly $27,000, according to a survey by health-policy organization KFF. Read more here.

Study Rounds

Antibody-chemo combos improve breast cancer outcomes

A newer class of cancer drugs can delay disease progression or extend survival for breast cancer patients, multiple teams of researchers reported at the ESMO meeting.

The treatments, known as antibody-drug conjugates, or ADCs, combine a targeted antibody with a chemotherapy drug.

In the ASCENT-03 trial, researchers tested Gilead Sciences' ADC Trodelvy in patients with untreated locally advanced or inoperable cases of aggressive triple-negative breast cancer who were not candidates for treatment with immunotherapy drugs such as Merck's Keytruda.

Trodelvy combines the cancer-cell-targeting antibody sacituzumab with the chemotherapy drug SN-38.

With half of the 558 study participants followed for at least 13 months, those receiving Trodelvy had a median progression-free survival, or the time before the cancer began to worsen, of 9.7 months, compared to 6.9 months for those treated with standard chemotherapy, according to a report of the study published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Earlier this year, study leader Dr. Sara Tolaney of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston presented results of a related trial that showed Trodelvy also adds a benefit when such patients do meet criteria for immunotherapy treatment.

Separately, researchers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York reported on Daiichi Sankyo's Datroway, a combination of the antibody datapotamab and the chemotherapy drug deruxtecan, in patients with previously untreated advanced triple-negative breast cancer for whom immunotherapy was similarly not an option.

Among the 644 patients in the TROPION-Breast 02 trial, median overall survival was about 24 months with Datroway versus 19 months with standard chemotherapy, researchers reported.

Median PFS was about 11 months with Datroway and 6 months for standard chemo.

Meanwhile, two additional studies showed that ADCs can dramatically improve outcomes not only when the disease has already progressed, but also in patients with earlier-stage disease.

In patients with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer in the DESTINY-Breast 05 and the DESTINY-Breast 11 trials, preoperative treatment with Enhertu from Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca – a combination of the antibody trastuzumab and the chemo drug deruxtecan - improved disease-free survival compared with standard therapy.

Blood test can guide intensity of chemotherapy

A simple blood test could change how doctors decide who needs chemotherapy, and how intensive it should be, in patients with colon or bladder cancer, according to study results presented at the ESMO meeting.

More than 1,000 people with stage 3 colon cancer in one study had blood taken about six weeks after surgery to remove the tumor.

If tiny fragments of cancer DNA in the bloodstream, known as circulating tumor DNA, were not detected, patients were considered 'low-risk.' If ctDNA was present, they were deemed 'high-risk.'

The intensity of their treatment was then guided by their ctDNA results, according to a report of the study published in Nature Medicine.

Low-risk patients were able to receive less chemotherapy, leading to fewer hospitalizations and a reduction in side-effects such as nerve damage, with only slightly lower cancer-free survival, the researchers said in a statement.

"Outcomes were excellent among the patients identified as low risk based on their ctDNA levels, with 87% remaining cancer-free three years after surgery," the researchers said.

A separate international trial published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that blood tests for ctDNA can also help guide treatment with Roche's immunotherapy Tecentriq (atezolizumab) in patients who have had surgery to remove bladder tumors that invaded the muscle.

"By selecting patients based on ctDNA, we see a benefit not only for disease-free survival but also for overall survival with (Tecentriq)," study leader Dr. Joaquim Bellmunt of Dana Farber said in a statement.

"This is the first time that an adjuvant immunotherapy trial has shown a benefit for survival in selected patients based on ctDNA testing."

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This newsletter was edited by Bill Berkrot; additional reporting by Shawana Alleyne-Morris.

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