Eribulin is a non taxane inhibitor of microtubule dynamics and is a synthetic analog of halichondrin B, a product derived from a a sea sponge Halichodria okadai. The EMBRACE trial is a randomized open label phase III study involving 762 heavily pretreated patients with locally recurrent or metastatic breast cancer. Patients were randomized to either Eribulin (508 patients) or to an approved treatment of their physician’s choice and this could be single agent chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, biological therapy or palliative radiation therapy (254 patients). There was a statistically significant improvement in overall survival in the Eribulin group 13.12 months compared to 10.65 months in the control group. This statistically significant benefit was also seen in the overall response rates.
We now have another agent with a distinct survival advantage for heavily pretreated metastatic breast cancer patients.
