This Breast Cancer Clinical Trial Needs Black Women to Ensure Our Survival

For Black women living with estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) metastatic breast cancer, a new clinical trial offers hope in the quest to overcome treatment resistance and extend survival. The VIKTORIA-1 trial is evaluating a potentially groundbreaking drug called gedatolisib, nicknamed “Get It All,” for its ability to inhibit the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway implicated in many cases of endocrine therapy resistance. What exactly is the VIKTORIA-1 trial? Dr. Mike Danso, a medical oncologist specializing in breast cancer clinical trials, explains the significance of this study to BDO in a Facebook town hall: “Preliminary data looking at this particular drug using VIKTORIA-1 called gedatolisib…has shown to be very efficacious in patients with or without PIK mutations.” The PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway, often referred to as the “PAM pathway,” plays a major role in up to 40 percent of ER+ metastatic breast cancers. The trial aims to incorporate gedatolisib into the standard of care for patients who have progressed on first-line therapies like CDK4/6 inhibitors (Ibrance, Kisqali, Verzenio) combined with an aromatase inhibitor. As Dr. Danso explains, “If you have the PIK3CA mutation, then the standard of care would be the injection, the fulvestrant, plus the alpelisib or another one of these agents to target that pathway.”...