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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Breast Cancer
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1437380
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The burden of breast cancer is still growing in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). BC patients typically present with more advanced stages than in Western countries.Limited information is available regarding the safety and efficacy of novel molecules for advanced BC in the Middle East region. The present real-world study evaluated the treatment patterns and survival outcomes of abemaciclib in patients with hormone receptor-positive (HR+)/human epidermal growth factor receptor-2-negative (HER2-) locally advanced or metastatic BC (mBC) in Kuwait and Lebanon. Methods: The TRACE study is an observational, retrospective, multicenter, single-arm cohort study. Medical records of HR+/HER2-locally advanced or mBC women were retrieved if they received abemaciclib as part of their treatment in Kuwait and Lebanon. Only patients who received abemaciclib monotherapy or in combination with other treatments for at least three months before data collection were included. Results: Eighty-five patients met the eligibility criteria (Kuwait =42 patients, Lebanon =43). Nearly 57% of the patients received abemaciclib in the first-line setting, 19.8% received it in the second-line, and 16.5% received it at third or later lines of treatment. Abemaciclib 150mg twice daily was administered in combination with other treatments, mainly endocrine therapy, in 95.3% of the patients. Overall, 18 patients (21.4%) had a dose reduction at the end of the third month of abemaciclib treatment. After three months of treatment, the rates of complete response (CR) and partial response (PR) as the best response were 6.9% and 63.8%, respectively, with an objective response rate (ORR) of 70.7%. The 12month progression-free survival (PFS) was 33.3% in the monotherapy group and 79.6% in the combination group. Conclusion: The present real-world evidence confirms the feasibility and effectiveness, in terms of response rate and PFS, of abemaciclib in patients with HR+/HER2patients with locally advanced or mBC from Kuwait and Lebanon in the Middle East region.
Keywords: Breast Neoplasms, Disease-Free Survival, cdk inhibitor, Abemaciclib, metastatic breast cancer
Received: 31 May 2024; Accepted: 10 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Al Terkait, Al-Nouri, Ghanem, Kattan, El Saghir, Bishouti, Rai and Rosca. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Alexandru Rosca, Lilly Research Laboratories, Eli Lilly (United States), Indianapolis, United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
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