Palbociclib plus endocrine therapy significantly enhances overall survival of HR+/HER2− metastatic breast cancer patients compared to endocrine therapy alone in the second-line setting: A large institutional study

Cyclin-dependent-kinase-4/6 inhibitor (CDK4/6i) plus endocrine therapy (ET) is standard of care for patients with advanced hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer (BC). The Breast Medical Oncology database at MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC) was analyzed to assess effectiveness of the CDK4/6i palbociclib plus ET compared to ET alone. From a total of 5402 advanced HR+ HER2− BC patients referred to MDACC between 1997 and 2020, we identified eligible patients who received palbociclib in combination with first-line (n = 778) and second-line (n = 410) ET. We further identified “control” patients who received ET alone in the first-line (n = 2452) and second-line (n = 1183) settings. Propensity score matching analysis was conducted to balance baseline demographic and clinical characteristics between palbociclib and control cohorts to assess the effect of palbociclib treatment on progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). For propensity-matched-cohort in the first-line setting (n = 708), palbociclib group had significantly longer median PFS (17.4 vs 11.1 months; P <.0001) compared to controls. Median OS (44.3 vs 40.2 months) did not show a statistically significant benefit in the first line setting. However, in the second-line setting, with 380 propensity-matched-cohort, the palbociclib group had significantly longer PFS (10 vs 5 months, P <.0001) as well as OS (33 vs 24 months; P <.022), compared to controls. We conclude that in this single center analysis of a large cohort of metastatic HR+ HER2− BC patients, palbociclib in combination with ET was associated with improved PFS in both first-line and second-line settings and OS in the second-line setting compared to ET alone cohort.