Lugano, Switzerland, December 7, 2020 – Helsinn, a Swiss pharmaceutical group focused on building quality cancer care and rare disease products, today announces that two scientific posters reviewing chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) recurrence and an assessment of recurrence in later chemotherapy cycles, will be presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS). The symposium is taking place online from 8-11 December 2020.
- The first abstract presents findings from an evaluation of individual patients’ risk of repeat CINV in each subsequent chemotherapy cycle in breast cancer patients. A post hoc analysis was made of 402 female patients in a NEPA [AKYNZEO® (netupitant/palonosetron)] clinical trial with additional analysis of a similar 2005 study of 433 breast cancer patients receiving ondansetron and aprepitant. Occurrence of CINV for cycles 2-4 of chemotherapy was compared to cycle 1 outcomes.
- The second abstract outlines findings of an evaluation of the number of days of breakthrough CINV in cycle 1 of chemotherapy treatment, and its association with individual patients’ repeat breakthrough CINV in subsequent cycles, based on a post hoc analysis of the clinical trial of NEPA.
Dr Rudolph M. Navari, of the World Health Organization, and lead investigator of both studies: “The first abstract reports that success in cycle 1 prophylaxis led to high success across subsequent cycles, while conversely cycle 1 failure led to high repeat failure for aprepitant, and to a lesser degree for NEPA. One possible explanation for the differential risks seen after the first cycle may be in the duration of CINV treatment failure, as shown in our second study presented at this conference.
In clinical practice, we see considerable heterogeneity in the duration of CINV. Our second abstract demonstrated that CINV duration (short vs extended) in cycle 1 strongly predicted CINV recurrence in subsequent cycles. This suggests a simple yet important new step for oncology practices: clinicians should monitor breakthrough CINV duration and follow guideline recommendations to change antiemetic prophylaxis when extended CINV does occur.”
William L. Bailey, Helsinn Therapeutics (U.S.) Vice President of Medical & Scientific Affairs: “Helsinn is committed to preventing CINV and reducing the burden of extended CINV events in all cycles of chemotherapy. These data in breast cancer patients presented at the SABCS 2020 highlight the need for close CINV monitoring and demonstrate our strong commitment to improving the lives of people with cancer.”
Presentation Details
Abstract 1 Title: Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) risk after prior breakthrough CINV: unmasking the false average
Date: December 9, 2020
Session Name: Poster Session 13 Poster 13-09
Time, Location: The full abstract can be viewed now on the SABCS website: https://www.sabcs.org/
Abstract 2 Title: Duration of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) as a predictor of later-cycle CINV
Date: December 9, 2020
Session Name: Poster Session 13 Poster 13-27Time, Location: The full abstract can be viewed now on the SABCS website: https://www.sabcs.org/