Neoadjuvant camrelizumab plus chemotherapy in triple-negative breast cancer

The anti-PD-1/PD-L1 antibody camrelizumab added to neoadjuvant chemotherapy significantly improved pathological complete response rate in patients with early or locally advanced triple-negative breast cancer, as shown by a new paper recently published on JAMA.

The CamRelief trial is a randomized, double-blind phase III clinical trial that enrolled a total of 441 patients with early or locally advanced triple-negative breast cancer from 40 centers in China. Participants were randomized to receive a neoadjuvant therapy with camrelizumab or placebo combined with chemotherapy every 2 weeks. After a median follow-up of 14.4 months, pathological complete response was achieved in 56.8% of camrelizumab-chemotherapy group versus 44.7% of placebo-chemotherapy group; adverse events of grade 3 or higher occurred in 89.2% and 83.1% of patients, respectively, and were generally consistent with the known safety profiles of the chemotherapy components and camrelizumab monotherapy, with no new safety signals. As authors conclude, «The addition of camrelizumab to platinum-containing, intensive neoadjuvant chemotherapy significantly improved the pathological complete response rate. The benefits of camrelizumab-chemotherapy with respect to pathological complete response were generally consistent across subgroups. Adverse events were more frequent in the camrelizumab-chemotherapy group, but most did not compromise chemotherapy exposure and aligned with the known profiles of each regimen».