German adjuvant intergroup node-positive study: a phase III trial to compare oral ibandronate versus observation in patients with high-risk early breast cancer.

Abstract

PURPOSE:

Bisphosphonates prevent skeletal-related events in patients with metastatic breast cancer. Their effect in early breast cancer is controversial. Ibandronate is an orally and intravenously available amino-bisphosphonate with a favorable toxicity profile. It therefore qualifies as potential agent for adjuvant use.

PATIENTS AND METHODS:

The GAIN (German Adjuvant Intergroup Node-Positive) study was an open-label, randomized, controlled phase III trial with a 2 × 2 factorial design. Patients with node-positive early breast cancer were randomly assigned 1:1 to two different dose-dense chemotherapy regimens and 2:1 to ibandronate 50 mg per day orally for 2 years or observation. In all, 2,640 patients and 728 events were estimated to be required to demonstrate an increase in disease-free survival (DFS) by ibandronate from 75% to 79.5% by using a two-sided α = .05 and 1-β of 80%. We report here the efficacy analysis for ibandronate, which was released by the independent data monitoring committee because the futility boundary was not crossed after 50% of the required DFS events were observed.

RESULTS:

Between June 2004 and August 2008, 2,015 patients were randomly assigned to ibandronate and 1,008 to observation. Patients randomly assigned to ibandronate showed no superior DFS or overall survival (OS) compared with patients randomly assigned to observation (DFS: hazard ratio, 0.945; 95% CI, 0.768 to 1.161; P = .589; OS: HR, 1.040; 95% CI, 0.763 to 1.419; P = .803). DFS was numerically longer if ibandronate was used in patients younger than 40 years or older than 60 years compared with patients age 40 to 59 years (test for interaction P = .093).

CONCLUSION:

Adjuvant treatment with oral ibandronate did not improve outcome of patients with high-risk early breast cancer who received dose-dense chemotherapy.

• Authors: Gunter von Minckwitz, Volker Möbus, Andreas Schneeweiss, Jens Huober, Christoph Thomssen, Michael Untch, Christian Jackisch, Ingo J Diel, Dirk Elling, Bettina Conrad, Rolf Kreienberg, Volkmar Müller, Hans-Joachim Lück, Ingo Bauerfeind, Michael Clemens, Marcus Schmidt, Stefanie Noeding, Helmut Forstbauer, Jana Barinoff, Antje Belau, Valentina Nekljudova, Nadia Harbeck, Sibylle Loibl
• Journal: Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (J Clin Oncol) Vol. 31 Issue 28 Pg. 3531-9 (Oct 01 2013) ISSN: 1527-7755 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 23980081 (Publication Type: Clinical Trial, Phase III, Comparative Study, Journal Article, Multicenter Study, Randomized Controlled Trial, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Diphosphonates
• Deoxycytidine
• Epirubicin
• Capecitabine
• Cyclophosphamide
• Paclitaxel
• Fluorouracil
• Ibandronic Acid

Topics

• Adult
• Aged
• Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols (therapeutic use)
• Breast Neoplasms (drug therapy, mortality, pathology)
• Capecitabine
• Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast (drug therapy, mortality, pathology)
• Carcinoma, Lobular (drug therapy, mortality, pathology)
• Chemotherapy, Adjuvant
• Cyclophosphamide (administration & dosage)
• Deoxycytidine (administration & dosage, analogs & derivatives)
• Diphosphonates (administration & dosage)
• Epirubicin (administration & dosage)
• Female
• Fluorouracil (administration & dosage, analogs & derivatives)
• Follow-Up Studies
• Germany
• Humans
• Ibandronic Acid
• Middle Aged
• Neoplasm Grading
• Neoplasm Staging
• Paclitaxel (administration & dosage)
• Prognosis
• Survival Rate
• Young Adult