Study details
Patients enrolled in PERSEPHONE had stage Ia to IIIa breast cancer. They were randomized evenly to either 6 months (9 cycles) or 12 months (18 cycles) of adjuvant trastuzumab, given with or after completion of chemotherapy.
Main results showed that the 4-year rate of disease-free survival was 89.8% with 12 months of trastuzumab and 89.4% with 6 months of trastuzumab (hazard ratio, 1.07; P for noninferiority = .01), Dr. Earl reported.
Cardiotoxicity data for the trial population, previously reported (Br J Cancer. 2016 Dec 6;115[12]:1462-70), showed that the rate of stopping trastuzumab because of this adverse effect was 8% with the standard-duration therapy and 4% with the shorter-duration therapy (P less than .0001). Patients saw recovery of cardiac function after stopping the drug (P less than .0001), with more rapid recovery in the shorter-duration group (P = .02).