Abemaciclib: A Review in Early Breast Cancer with a High Risk of Recurrence

Declarations

Funding The preparation of this review was not supported by any external funding.

Authorship and Conflict of interest Simon Fung and Hannah Blair are salaried employees of Adis International Ltd/Springer Nature, and declare no relevant conflicts of interest. All authors contributed to the review and are responsible for the article content.

Ethics approval, Consent to participate, Consent to publish, Availability of data and material, Code availability Not applicable.

Additional information about this Adis Drug Review can be found here.

Abstract

Abemaciclib [Verzenio® (USA) or Verzenios^® (EU)] is a cyclin-dependent kinase 4 and 6 (CDK4/6) inhibitor approved in combination with adjuvant endocrine therapy for patients with hormone receptor positive (HR+), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 negative (HER2−), node-positive, early breast cancer with a high risk of recurrence. In a phase III trial, abemaciclib plus endocrine therapy reduced the risk of recurrence of breast cancer compared with endocrine therapy alone, including in patients who had previously received neoadjuvant chemotherapy, in patients with high- and low-scoring Ki-67 tumours, and in both premenopausal and postmenopausal patients. The tolerability profile of abemaciclib plus endocrine therapy was acceptable and manageable, with diarrhoea, infections and neutropenia being the most common adverse events. Thus, abemaciclib in combination with standard endocrine therapy is a valuable additional treatment option for patients with HR+, HER2−, node-positive early breast cancer with a high risk of recurrence. 

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