A little respect.

Metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is looking for just a little bit. Where both hormone receptor(+) and HER2(+) cancers have myriad chemo-free options comprised of CDK4/6 inhibitors and HER2-targeted therapies, TNBC is typically left with the plain-ole cytotoxic stuff. A new antibody-drug conjugate (think: Kadcyla) is trying to change that. Say what? Oh (sacituzu, sacituzu, sacituzu, sacituzu) sacituzumab govitecan-hziy is a monoclonal antibody targeting Trop-2 linked with the irinotecan active metabolite SN-38. As you might have guessed, Trop-2 is a cell-surface marker commonly overexpressed in TNBC. This relevant phase 2 reporting is on the TNBC subset of a large Immunomedics-sponsored basket trial. Among 108 patients with TNBC refractory to a median of 3 systemic regimens, the primary efficacy endpoint of objective response occurred in one-third of patients (3 complete + 33 partial) with a median duration of 8-9 months. If this pans out in bigger trials, we can only hope for a catchy trade name. TBL: Look out for sacituzumab govitecan-hziy to gain accelerated FDA approval for refractory TNBC while awaiting phase 3 confirmation. | Bardia, N Engl J Med 2019