A Phase 2 Trial of Standard Chemotherapy, With or Without BSI-201, in Patients With Triple Negative Metastatic Breast Cancer

The purpose of this clinical trial was to determine whether combining iniparib (BSI-201) with standard chemotherapy in estrogen receptor (ER)-negative, progesterone receptor (PR)-negative, and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) negative metastatic breast cancer patients improve clinical benefit compared to treatment with standard chemotherapy alone. Based on data generated by BiPar/Sanofi, it was concluded that iniparib does not possess characteristics typical of the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor class. The exact mechanism has not yet been fully elucidated, however based on experiments on tumor cells performed in the laboratory, iniparib is a novel investigational anti-cancer agent that induces gamma-H2AX (a marker of DNA damage) in tumor cell lines, induces cell cycle arrest in the G2/M phase in tumor cell lines, and potentiates the cell cycle effects of DNA damaging modalities in tumor cell lines. Investigations into potential targets of iniparib and its metabolites are ongoing.

Patients were treated until disease progression, unacceptable toxicity, Investigator's decision to discontinue, or withdrawal of consent. After treatment discontinuation, all patients were evaluated every 90 days after last dose of gemcitabine/carboplatin with or without iniparib, for up to 3 years or death or end of study, which ever occurred first.