Eribulin in Advanced Breast Cancer: Experience from a Tertiary Cancer Care Centre IN India

Abstract

Background: Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease and patients with advanced breast cancer who are resistant to Anthracycline and Taxane chemotherapeutic agents present a major obstacle to therapy and left with very few effective treatment options. Eribulin, a microtubule polymerization inhibitor, is a single agent chemotherapy which has shown survival benefits and therapeutic safety and efficacy in patients with metastatic disease who has received prior Taxane and Anthracycline. Data of Eribulin efficacy and safety is sparse and there is very little evidence in Asian population. The present study was undertaken to assess the efficacy of Eribulin in advanced breast cancer patients treated at a tertiary cancer care centre in India. Methods: During the study period October 2013 to June 2018, a total of 82 advanced breast cancer female patients with metastatic disease received Eribulin. The clinicopathological data including treatment details, patient outcome and survival was recorded and evaluated. Results: The mean age of the patients was 49 years and 52% patients were premenopausal. 94% patient has classical infiltrating ductal carcinoma and 45% patients were negative for ER, PR and HER2 neu receptor status. Around 46% patients had metastatic disease at presentation. Eribulin was given as second, third, fourth and fifth line of treatment in 44, 32, 5 and 1 patient, respectively. The median progression free survival was 13.5 months. 83.7% patients had progressive disease and 12% patients expired during the course of the study. The overall survival was 65% at 231 months whereas the progression free survival was 0% at 185 months (calculated from date of registration). Conclusion: The present study establishes the safety and efficacy of Eribulin administration in breast cancer patients with advanced disease. The experience at our centre showed clinical outcomes similar to real world data and reemphasizes the importance of Eribulin in this subset of patients.