Sung Gwe Ahn, MD, PhD, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, discusses exploratory analysis results from the HERA trial which demonstrated that the addition of ovarian function suppression to antihormonal therapy shows promise in patients with human receptor (HR)-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive early breast cancer. 

Dr Ahn presented these results at the 2024 European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Barcelona, Spain. 

Transcript: 

Hello, my name is Sung Gwe Ahn, [from] South Korea. My question is that in premenopausal HR-positive, HER2-positive breast cancer, what is the role of ovarian function suppression (OFS)? 

In another subset of breast cancer, HR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer, if the patient has high-risk features such as high stage or bad grade indicates that we can add OFS into endocrine therapy. But in HR-positive, HER2-positive breast cancer, many patients and also physicians consider high HER2-targeted therapy, using many options for HER2-targeted therapy but after that, the patient is still very young and sometimes their tumor acts like luminal cancer, it means that HR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer. In the young patient, what is the role of OFS – that’s the question. 

In our legendary trial, the HERA trial, we address this question. We found that addition of OFS into endocrine therapy might be beneficial in HR-positive, HER2-positive, young patients and have some high-risk features. That's a key finding of my talk. 

Another issue is that when we give OFS, then which oral endocrine partner is best? One is tamoxifen, TAM, and another is AI, [an] aromatase inhibitor. In our data AI [is] comparable or superior to TAM as a partner of OFS, but its very limited data and we need more investigation about this issue. 

If a young patient has HR-positive or HER2-positive breast cancer, after long-term targeted therapy we should consider the addition OFS to endocrine therapy. 

Source: 

Moon S, Bae SJ, Kook Y, et al. Ovarian function suppression in HR-positive, HER2-positive breast cancer: An exploratory analysis from the HERA trial. Presented at 2024 ESMO Congress. September 13-17, 2024. Abstract 233MO