AUTHOR=Al-Ziftawi Nour Hisham , Elazzazy Shereen , Alam Mohammed Fasihul , Shafie Asrul , Hamad Anas , Bbujassoum Salha , Mohamed Ibrahim Mohamed Izham 

TITLE=The effectiveness and safety of palbociclib and ribociclib in stage IV HR+/HER-2 negative breast cancer: a nationwide real world comparative retrospective cohort study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Oncology

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/oncology/articles/10.3389/fonc.2023.1203684

DOI=10.3389/fonc.2023.1203684

ISSN=2234-943X

ABSTRACT=Introduction: Palbociclib and ribociclib are indicated in the first-line treatment of hormonal receptor-positive HER-2 negative (HR+/HER2-negative) advanced breast cancer. Although randomized-controlled trials (RCTs) proved their clinical efficacy, there are no observational studies yet to validate the clinical findings in the real-world. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate and compare the clinical effectiveness and safety profiles of palbociclib and ribociclib in Qatar.Materials and Methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted on HR+/HER-2-negative stage-IV breast cancer patients receiving palbociclib or ribociclib in the state of Qatar. Clinical data were collected from the National Center for Cancer Care and Research (NCCCR) in Qatar using Cerner®. Primary outcomes were progression-freesurvival (PFS) and overall-survival (OS) generated by Kaplan-Meier curves. Moreover, safety profiles of both two treatments were evaluated.Results: The data from 108 patients were included in the final analysis. There was no statistically significant difference in PFS between the palbociclib and ribociclib groups; PFS was 17.85 versus 13.55 months, respectively(p> 0.05).Similarly, there was no statistically significant difference in OS between the two medications, 29.82 versus 31.72 months, respectively(p>0.05). Adverse events were similar between the two groups. Neutropenia was the most common side effect in the study population accounting for 59.3% of the patients.Conclusions: Therefore, both treatments have similar efficacy and safety profiles. Further research on a larger-scale population and longer follow-up period is recommeneded.