Patients with estrogen receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2- negative (ER+/HER2−) breast cancer demonstrate low pathological complete response (pCR) rates with neoadjuvant chemotherapy . A clinical trial has examined whether adding an anti-programmed death 1 agent, nivolumab, to neoadjuvant chemotherapy improves pCR rates in 510 patients with high-risk, grade 2 or 3 ER+/HERT2– breast cancer. The study found that more patients achieved pCR in the nivolumab group than in the placebo group (24.5% vs. 13.8%).
Notably, patients with programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1)-positive tumors demonstrated even greater pCR rates than those in the placebo group (44.3% vs. 20.2%). However, while no deaths were reported in the placebo group, five deaths were reported in the nivolumab group, with two being associated with study drug toxicity. These findings suggest that adding…
