Safety and efficacy profile of Trastuzumab deruxtecan in solid cancer: pooled reanalysis based on clinical trials

PURPOSE: This study aimed to explore the efficiency and safety of the new generation antibody-drug conjugate Trastuzumab deruxtecan (DS-8201a) in treating HER2-positive solid cancers. METHOD: By searching PubMed, Medline and Ovid for all clinical trials related to the safety and efficacy of DS-8201a. Event rates were calculated for all adverse events (AEs) to evaluate the safety of DS-8201a. Objective response rate (ORR) and progression-free survival (PFS) were summarized to assess the potency of DS-8201a. RESULT: The AEs with event rates greater than 30% regardless of grades were nausea, decreased appetite, vomiting, fatigue, anemia, decreased neutrophil count, alopecia and diarrhea. In the grade 3 or more, decreased neutrophil count, anemia and decreased white blood cell count were the only three AEs with event rates greater than 10% (20.3, 15.0 and 10.3%). The median PFS of patients with breast cancer, gastric cancer and other HER2-positive solid cancers were 9.0-22.1, 3.0-8.3 and 4.1-11.9 months. The median ORR was 37-79.9% in patients with breast and gastric cancer and 28.3-55% in patients with other HER2-positive cancers. CONCLUSION: DS-8201a plays an active role in treating HER2-positive cancers, especially breast and gastric cancer, which have HER2 amplification. The most common AEs of DS-8201a were related to gastrointestinal and hematological system. Decreased white blood cell count and appetite were the AEs occurred with high grades. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12885-022-10015-6.