ECCO 2017 | Safety and efficacy of ribociclib and letrozole in advanced breast cancer – the MONALEESA-2 trial

Gabe Sonke, MD, PhD, from the Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands, discusses results from the Phase III MONALEESA-2 trial on the safety and efficacy of the selective CDK4/6 inhibitor ridociclib combined with letrozole in advanced breast cancer in postmenopausal women (NCT01958021), which he presented at the European Cancer Congress of the European Cancer Organisation (ECCO) 2017 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He describes how treatment of metastatic, hormone receptor-positive (HR+) HER2- breast cancer, where endocrine resistance is common, with a combination of ridociclib and letrozole prolonged progression-free survival (PFS) compared to letrozole with placebo in this randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled Phase III trial. Dr Sonke also discusses differences between younger and elderly patients as well as side effects of this treatment, which are primarily hematologic, and how these can be managed by dose reduction or dose interruption in this first-line treatment.