HER2DX genomic test in HER2-positive/hormone receptor-positive breast cancer treated with neoadjuvant trastuzumab and pertuzumab: A correlative analysis from the PerELISA trial

BACKGROUND: HER2DX is a prognostic and predictive assay in early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer based on clinical features and the expression of 4 gene signatures (immune, proliferation, luminal differentiation and HER2 amplicon), including ERBB2 mRNA levels. Here, we evaluated the ability of HER2DX to predict efficacy of a de-escalated, chemotherapy-free neoadjuvant regimen in HER2-positive/hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. METHODS: HER2DX was evaluated on pre-treatment tumour samples from the PerELISA phase II study focused on postmenopausal patients with operable HER2-positive/hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. Patients received 2-weeks of letrozole, and then underwent a re-biopsy for Ki67 evaluation. Patients with endocrine therapy sensitive disease (ESD) (i.e., >20.0% Ki67 relative reduction at week 2) continued letrozole and 5 cycles of trastuzumab and pertuzumab. Primary aim was to test the ability of HER2DX risk-score, HER2DX pCR score and HER2DX ERBB2 mRNA score (as continuous variables and group categories) to predict pathological complete response (pCR) in patients with ESD. Logistic regression and receiver–operator curve (ROC) analysis assessed associations of HER2DX scores with pCR and ESD. FINDINGS: HER2DX was evaluated in 55 patients (86.0%) enrolled in PerELISA and 40 patients (73.0%) had ESD. The pCR rate in patients with ESD was 22.5% (9/40). In this group, HER2DX pCR score and HER2DX ERBB2 mRNA score were significantly associated with pCR (p = 0.008 and p = 0.003, univariate logistic regression model; area under ROC [AUC] = 0.803 and 0.896). The pCR rate in low, medium, and high HER2DX pCR score groups was 7.7% (2/26), 46.2% (6/13) and 100.0% (1/1), respectively. The pCR rate in low, medium, and high HER2DX ERBB2 score groups was 0.0% (0/12), 7.7% (1/13) and 53.3% (8/15), respectively. HER2DX pCR score was also significantly associated with Ki-67 response following 2-weeks of letrozole (p = 0.002, univariate logistic regression model; AUC = 0.775). The rate of ESD in low, medium, and high HER2DX pCR score groups was 89.7% (26/29), 65.0% (13/20) and 16.7% (1/6), respectively. INTERPRETATION: HER2DX predicts response following neoadjuvant letrozole in combination with dual HER2 blockade with trastuzumab and pertuzumab in early-stage HER2-positive/hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. FUNDING: This study received funding from Reveal Genomics.