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The association of the drug Palbociclib, a recently developed drug, with hormone treatment dramatically extends the lives of women with advanced breast cancer, scientists said yesterday.
Women with metastatic cancer and receiving combination therapy lived seven months longer than those treated only with hormones. And in women who had already responded to hormone therapy, these extended survival times averaged 10 months.
The study was published in New England Journal of Medicine and was presented simultaneously at the congress of the European Society of Medical Oncology in Munich, Germany. "These results indicate that we can now offer women with incurable breast cancer a valuable extra period of survival before their condition worsens." This is very encouraging, "said Professor Nick Turner of the Cancer Institute, who led the study.
Researchers from the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust also participated in the study funded by the drug's manufacturer, Pfizer. A total of 521 women with advanced and hormone-sensitive breast cancer took part.
The trial examined the effect of palbociclib on the overall survival rate of women when their advanced breast cancer stopped responding to other treatments. Usually, the only option available is chemotherapy, which can have debilitating side effects. The researchers sought to know if the drug could delay the need for chemotherapy.
Their analysis revealed that women who received combination therapy survived an average of 34.9 months, or 6.9 months more than those who received only hormone treatment. Three years after enrollment in the study, 49.6% of women who received both palbociclib and hormones were still alive, compared with 40.8% of women treated with hormones alone.
Baroness Delyth Morgan, Executive Director of Breast Cancer Now – while welcoming the study – expressed concern that the new treatment will not reach breast cancer patients in the NHS as her assessment methodology did not has been updated to support modern combined therapies.
"We simply can not let the progress of research like this put NHS patients through and we urge a reform of the evaluation methodology to ensure the rapid availability of new combination therapies." and effective at an affordable price for the NHS. "
The UK still has one of the lowest breast cancer survival rates in Western Europe and this year around 11,500 women will lose their lives.
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