Comparative Efficacy of Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors and Antibody-Drug Conjugates in HER2-Positive Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients with Brain Metastases: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis

Simple Summary Comparisons between the efficacy of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) in treating HER2-positive breast cancer brain metastasis (BCBM) patients have not previously been conducted. We performed a systematic review and Bayesian-based network meta-analysis to pool the estimates of progression-free survival, overall survival, and incidence of central nervous system (CNS) disease progression. The current study indicated that both T-DXd and T-DM1 presented better efficacy than TKIs regarding survival outcomes. Treatments containing neratinib or T-DM1 tended to rank the best in reducing the recurrent rate of CNS. Our study provides more evidence for the clinical decision making for patients with HER2-positive BCBM. More high-quality studies with standardized entry criteria and comparable CNS-related endpoints are warranted in the future. HER2-positive breast cancer brain metastasis (BCBM) is an important clinical problem. A systematic review and network meta-analysis were conducted to compare the efficacy of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), two categories of emerging agents in this field. We implemented a comprehensive literature search of PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, ClinicalTrials.gov, and abstracts of oncology conferences. A network meta-analysis following Bayesian approaches was performed. Pooled hazard ratios (HRs) and odds ratios (ORs) with credible intervals (CrIs) were calculated to estimate progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and the incidence of central nervous system (CNS) disease progression. Sixteen studies were included. Pairwise comparisons of PFS showed salient divergency between T-DXd and the physician's choice of treatment (HR 0.17; 95% CrI 0.03-0.82) or afatinib (HR 0.14; 95% CrI 0.02-1.00). T-DXd and T-DM1 ranked first regarding PFS and OS, respectively, followed by TKI-containing regimens. The incidence of CNS disease progression was analyzed separately according to baseline BCBM status, among which neratinib-containing regimens were most likely to rank the best. In conclusion, ADCs including T-DXd and T-DM1 showed better efficacy than TKIs in the survival outcomes for HER2-positive BCBM patients. Treatments based on neratinib or T-DM1 revealed favorable results in reducing the recurrent rate of CNS.