AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo’s Enhertu (trastuzumab deruxtecan) in combination with pertuzumab has been approved in the European Union (EU) for the first-line treatment of adult patients with unresectable or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer.
The approval by the European Commission follows the positive opinion of the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency and is based on results from the DESTINY-Breast09 phase 3 trial.
The results were presented at the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting and subsequently published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Cristina Saura, Vall d’Hebron University Hospital and Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), Barcelona, steering committee member and investigator for the DESTINY-Breast09 trial, said: “For patients diagnosed with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer, maintaining disease control for as long as possible in the first-line setting is a critical treatment goal. The combination of trastuzumab deruxtecan and pertuzumab represents a significant therapeutic advance, with progression-free survival exceeding three years compared to approximately two years with the current standard of care, and has the potential to become the new first-line standard of care.”
Dave Fredrickson, Executive Vice President, Oncology Haematology Business Unit, AstraZeneca, said: “This approval brings Enhertu to patients in the EU earlier in the course of their metastatic disease and sets a new benchmark for progression-free survival in the first-line setting. HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer is an aggressive disease, so to give patients the best chance of improving long-term outcomes, it is critical to initiate effective HER2-directed therapy early and continue treatment for as long as patients benefit.”
Ken Keller, Global Head of Oncology Business, and President and CEO, Daiichi Sankyo, Inc., said: “This milestone marks the second new indication for Enhertu in the EU in just two months following the recent tumour agnostic approval. This approval of Enhertu in combination with pertuzumab has the potential to reshape clinical practice in the first-line treatment setting for patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.”
In DESTINY-Breast09, Enhertu in combination with pertuzumab reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 44% versus ataxane, trastuzumab and pertuzumab (THP) in patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer who had not received prior chemotherapy or HER2-targeted therapy or had received neoadjuvant or adjuvant HER2-targeted therapy more than six months before the diagnosis of advanced or metastatic disease.
Median progression-free survival (PFS) was 40.7 months with Enhertu in combination with pertuzumab compared to 26.9 months with THP.
Following this approval in the EU, Daiichi Sankyo is due to received a milestone payment of $100m from AstraZeneca for the first-line unresectable or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer indication.