Overview
CDK4/6 inhibitors combined with endocrine therapy are the cornerstone of first-line treatment for hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer (HR+/HER2- MBC). This large-scale real-world study leverages the panoramic Flatiron Health Research Database to provide insights into patient characteristics and treatment patterns for three CDK4/6 inhibitors—palbociclib (PAL), ribociclib (RIB), and abemaciclib (ABE)—used in routine clinical practice across the United States.
This research used the Flatiron Health EHR-derived Panoramic database comprised of >940K patients with breast cancer to analyze data from over 11,500 patients who began treatment between February 2015 and July 2024. The study evaluated treatment duration, discontinuation rates, and subsequent therapies. It found that PAL was associated with a longer treatment duration compared to RIB and ABE. Discontinuation rates at 12 months were lower for PAL, and a higher percentage of PAL patients received subsequent therapies.
Why this matters
This study offers valuable real-world evidence into patient characteristics, treatment patterns, and subsequent treatments between first-line treatment of CDK4/6 inhibitors in a large, diverse patient population. The research highlights differences in treatment duration and subsequent therapy uptake and by using novel real-world data solutions. Flatiron’s Panoramic datasets offer a scaled, comprehensive, disease-specific solution to answer questions not previously possible, unlocking critical information to improve care and outcomes for people with cancer.