Novartis Drugs--The One-Two Punch Aimed at Helping Women with Advanced Breast Cancer
Research findings presented today at the European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress in Stockholm offer more hope to women suffering from advanced breast cancer. Medical researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School presented findings which suggested that the combination of two cancer drugs may prove to offer benefits to women afflicted with estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer.
Two cancer drugs, exemestane (Aromasin) and everolimus (Afinitor) were combined in women with breast cancer tumors which were receptive to estrogen. In this study (nicknamed BOLERO-2) the women who received the combination of exemestane and everolimus had a longer period of time before their disease progressed, compared to women who exemestane alone (6.9 months versus 2.8 months). The robust nature of these data led the researchers to terminate the study prematurely after a separate independent analysis by a central review committee showed that Afinitor extended progression-free survival (PFS) to 10.6 months compared to 4.1 months, a 64 percent improvement.
Women with metastatic breast cancer which is responsive to estrogen are often given drugs such as tamoxifen, exemestane and letrozole; these medications act as hormone-blockers, reducing the amount of circulating estrogen in the body which feeds tumor growth. It is fairly common for these women's tumor's to become resistant to these hormone-blocking medications. In these instances, oncologists have traditionally had few options to prolong survival. The addition of everolimus to the arsenal of drugs used to treat advanced hormone receptor positive breast cancer is an exciting advance in oncology research. According to Herve Hoppenot, president of Novartis Oncology, "Everolimus is the first drug to show significant efficacy when combined with hormone therapy in ER-positive and HER2-negative breast cancer, where there continues to be a critical unmet need."
Metastatic breast cancer image courtesy of Peter
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