Key clinical point: Crofelemer failed to reduce the incidence rate of any grade chemotherapy-induced diarrhea (CID) in patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive (HER2+) breast cancer (BC) who received trastuzumab, pertuzumab, and a taxane.
Major finding: During cycle 2 of chemotherapy, a similar proportion of patients reported any grade diarrhea for ≥2 consecutive days (P = .742), but the rate of grade ≥2 diarrhea was significantly reduced (8.0% vs 39.1%; P = .0196) in the crofelemer vs no scheduled prophylactic medication treatment group.
Study details: Findings are from the phase 2 HALT-D study including 51 patients with HER2+ BC who were randomly assigned to receive 125 mg crofelemer or no scheduled prophylactic medication during cycles 1 and 2 of chemotherapy/HER2-targeted therapy.
Disclosures: This study was supported by Genentech, Inc., and other sources. The authors declared serving as consultants, advisors or receiving honoraria, research funding, consulting fees, speaking fees, or travel support from several sources, including Genentech.
Source: Pohlmann PR et al. HALT-D: A randomized open-label phase II study of crofelemer for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced diarrhea in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer receiving trastuzumab, pertuzumab, and a taxane. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2022;196(3):571-581 (Oct 25). Doi: 10.1007/s10549-022-06743-9