Three Antidiarrheal Strategies in HER2+/HR+ Early Breast Cancer Patients Treated With Extended Adjuvant Neratinib

This is an international, multicenter, prospective, controlled, randomized, adaptative, phase II study to evaluate the incidence of discontinuations due to diarrhoea within the first 3 cycles in patients with early-stage HER2+ and HR+ breast cancer treated with neratinib plus loperamide prophylaxis for the first 2 cycles versus neratinib with initial 2-week dose escalation plus PRN loperamide versus neratinib and loperamide plus colesevelam prophylaxis for 28 days.

After the preplanned therapy, prophylaxis or treatment for diarrhoea will be given as clinically indicated following the standard of care by the treating physician.

Approximately 315 patients will be enrolled in the study.

All enrolled patients will receive neratinib orally once daily for 13 cycles, continuously. Eligible patients will be randomly assigned in a 1:1:1 ratio to one of the diarrhoea prophylaxis arms, using an interactive response technology (IRT) module within the electronic data capture (EDC) system. Patients will be stratified according to menopausal status (premenopausal versus postmenopausal) and prior anti-HER2 therapy (trastuzumab only versus trastuzumab plus pertuzumab).

Baseline assessments will be performed prior to C1D1 dosing. During the first 3 cycles of treatment, safety data will be collected during the cycle visits. After the first 3 cycles, all patients will enter in a follow-up period to complete approximately 1 year of neratinib treatment. During this follow-up period, safety data will be collected every 3 months. An End-of-Treatment (EOT) Visit is planned on cycle 13 day 28 for all treatment arms (unless patient discontinues earlier), followed by a Safety Follow-up Visit (30 +/-5 days after the last dose of neratinib). This will be the core phase of the study.

After this safety follow-up visit, long term outcome data will be collected for 5 years to address the exploratory objectives. This will be the extended phase of the study. Archived primary tumor tissue (at baseline) and whole blood samples (at baseline, during the treatment and follow-up period, and at disease relapse) will be collected for the exploratory analyses.

Patients are anticipated to participate in the core phase of the study for approximately 1 year to address primary and secondary objectives (28 days for screening, approximately 12 months to complete neratinib treatment, and 30 days for a safety follow-up visit after the last dose of neratinib). Later on patients will continue in the extended phase of the study and will be followed-up for at least 5 years to collect long term outcome data to conduct the exploratory analyses. The approximate duration of the full study is 8 years.

The objectives of the study are indicated below:

Primary objectives:

To evaluate the incidence of neratinib discontinuations due to diarrhoea within the first 3 cycles (1 cycle = 28 days) in patients with early-stage HER2 overexpressed/amplified (HER2+), hormone receptor-positive (HR+) breast cancer who have completed adjuvant trastuzumab-based therapy.

Primary End-point:

Incidence of neratinib discontinuations due to diarrhoea at the end of 3 cycles of neratinib treatment.

Secondary Objectives:

• Incidence and time of neratinib discontinuations due to any treatment-emergent adverse event (TEAE).
• Diarrhoea due to neratinib: incidence, duration, severity, and treatment interventions.
• Incidence of neratinib discontinuation due to any reason.
• Incidence of hospitalisations (overall and for diarrhoea).
• Incidence of TEAEs and serious adverse events (SAEs) and adverse events of special interest (AESIs, ie, hepatic, cardiac, pulmonary, reproductive and developmental).
• Neratinib exposure assessment.
• Determine the effect of study treatment on quality of life, as measured by patient reported outcomes, in all treatment arms.

Secondary End-points:

• Incidence and time to neratinib discontinuations due to any TEAE.
• Incidence, cumulative duration and time to first episode of any diarrhoea and grade 3 or higher diarrhoea.
• Incidence and time to neratinib discontinuation due to any reason.
• Incidence of hospitalisations due to any reason and diarrhoea.
• Incidence of TEAEs and SAEs that included AESIs (i.e. hepatic, cardiac, pulmonary, reproductive and developmental).
• Incidence of Neratinib dose modifications (reductions and dose holds), and dose intensity.
• Systemic therapy-induced diarrhea Assessment Tool (STIDAT), Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Questionnaire for Breast Cancer (FACT B) and EuroQol 5 Dimensions 5 Levels (EQ5D-5L) questionnaires.

Exploratory Objectives:

Evaluate minimal residual disease (MRD) and molecular alterations associated with patient outcome, and/or the development of diarrhoea with neratinib.

Exploratory End-points:

Correlation of biomarkers data with patient outcome and safety data.

Inclusion criteria

Patients are eligible to be enrolled in the study only if they meet all of the following criteria:

• Male or female patient ≥18 years of age at signing of informed consent.
• Histologically confirmed Stage I B through Stage III C primary adenocarcinoma of the breast.
• Documented HER2-positive disease based on local laboratory determination according to American Society of Clinical Oncology/College of American Pathologists (ASCO/CAP) 2018 criteria.
• Documented HR+ disease, defined as oestrogen receptor (ER) and/or progesterone receptor (PR) ≥1% based on local laboratory determination.
• Patients must have completed prior neoadjuvant/adjuvant trastuzumab-based therapy (eg, trastuzumab-based treatments including trastuzumab-emtansine [T-DM1]) or experienced side effects that resulted in early discontinuation of trastuzumab-based therapy that have since resolved (pertuzumab therapy is accepted but not mandatory).
• The last dose of trastuzumab-based therapy must have been given to the patient >2 weeks and ≤1 year (365 days) before first dose of neratinib.
• Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) ≥50% measured by multiple-gated acquisition scan (MUGA) or echocardiogram (ECHO).
• Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) status of 0 or 1.
• Negative β-human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) pregnancy test for premenopausal women of reproductive capacity (those who are biologically capable of having children) and for women less than 12 months after menopause. [Women are considered postmenopausal if they are ≥ 12 months without menses, in the absence of endocrine or anti-endocrine therapies].
• Women of childbearing potential must agree and commit to the use of a highly effective non-hormonal method of contraception, ie, intrauterine device, bilateral tubal ligation, vasectomized partner, or abstinence (only when it is the preferred lifestyle of the patient), from the time of informed consent until 30 days after the last dose of the medicinal products. Male patient with female partner of childbearing potential must agree and commit to use condom, and the female partner must agree and commit to use a highly effective method of contraception (ie, any of the above methods, or for females, hormonal contraception associated with inhibition of ovulation) while on treatment and for 3 months after last dose of medicinal products.
• Recovery (ie, to Grade 1 or baseline) from all clinically significant AEs related to prior therapies (excluding alopecia, neuropathy, and nail changes).
• Provide written, informed consent to participate in the study and follow the study procedures.

Exclusion criteria

Patients will be excluded from the study if they meet any of the following criteria:

• Clinical or radiologic evidence of local or regional recurrence of disease or metastatic disease prior to or at the time of study entry.
• Currently receiving chemotherapy, radiation therapy, immunotherapy, or biological therapy for breast cancer (adjuvant endocrine therapy is allowed).
• Major surgery within <30 days of starting treatment or received chemotherapy, investigational agents, or other cancer therapy <14 days prior to the initiation of investigational products.
• Active uncontrolled cardiac disease, including cardiomyopathy, congestive heart failure (New York Heart Association functional classification of ≥2), unstable angina, myocardial infarction within 12 months of enrolment, or ventricular arrhythmia.
• Corrected QT interval (QTc) interval >0.450 seconds (males) or >0.470 (females), or known history of QTc prolongation or Torsade de Pointes (TdP).
• Screening laboratory assessments outside the following limits:

Absolute neutrophil count (ANC) ≤1,000/μl (≤1.0 x 109/L), Platelet count ≤100,000/μl (≤100 x 109/L), Hemoglobin ≤9 g/dL, Total bilirubin >1.5 x institutional upper limit of normal (ULN) (in case of known Gilbert's syndrome, <2 x ULN is allowed), Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and/or alanine aminotransferase (ALT) >2.5 x institutional ULN, Creatinine clearance <30 mL/min (as calculated by Cockcroft-Gault formula a or Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) formula).

• Active, unresolved infections.
• Patients with a second malignancy, other than adequately treated non-melanoma skin cancers, in situ melanoma or in situ cervical cancer. Patients with other non-mammary malignancies must have been disease-free for at least 5 years.
• Currently pregnant or breast-feeding.
• Significant chronic gastrointestinal disorder with diarrhoea as a major symptom (eg, Crohn's disease, malabsorption, or Grade ≥2 National Cancer Institute [NCI] Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events Version 5.0 [CTCAE v.5.0] diarrhoea of any etiology at baseline); or gastroparesis, dysphagia, or swallowing disorder.
• Clinically active infection with hepatitis B or hepatitis C virus.
• Evidence of significant medical illness, abnormal laboratory finding, or psychiatric illness/social situations that could, in the Investigator's judgment, make the patient inappropriate for this study.
• Known hypersensitivity to any component of the investigational products; known allergies to any of the medications or components of medications used in the trial.
• Unable or unwilling to swallow tablets.