ESMO Breast 2022 | The advantage of ADCs for the treatment of brain metastases

Rupert Bartsch, MD, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, discusses the treatment of brain metastases. The blood-brain barrier (BBB) gets disrupted at metastatic sites, enabling for molecules to penetrate the metastasis. However, the degree to which the BBB is disrupted is not the same across the entire metastasis, resulting in certain regions of the metastasis being unable to obtain clinically active concentrations of a drug. Prof. Bartsch mentions a specific mechanism of action of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) called the bystander effect, providing ADCs with an advantage for the treatment of brain metastases whereby the cytotoxic drug molecules released by the ADC are able to diffuse into adjacent cells. This interview took place at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Breast Cancer 2022 congress in Berlin, Germany.