Value of Emerging Agents in HER2+ mBC

Bhavesh Shah, RPh, BCOP: As a payer and a provider, some of the values that are driven by these types of therapies are the reduction in distant metastases, CNS [central nervous system] relapse, and of course improvement in quality of life. We know that these patients have many symptoms, such as seizures and an increase in intracranial pressure, VTE [venous thromboembolism] risk, and neurocognitive decline. Having any type of improvement in many of these aspects is important and valuable to have. We’ll probably see it, especially with many of these new agents that have responses directly in the CNS. Having this longer CNS time to progression could also help with mitigating some of the adverse effects that these patients will have or those that would require intervention such as whole-brain radiation. We know that breast cancer is going to present with numerous brain metastases lesions that would ultimately require whole-brain radiation. If you can prevent whole-brain radiation, that is a value-driven outcome for any patient with this disease.