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Breast Cancer Drug Hailed As Greatest Advance in 30 Years Medical Experts Hail New Drug Treatment for Breast Cancer

Posted on: Thursday, 9 December 2004, 06:00 CST

MORE THAN 100,000 women with breast cancer were offered new hope yesterday by research hailed as the biggest advance in treatment of the disease for 30 years.

The findings, announced in the United States, mark a watershed in breast cancer care and are expected to challenge the dominance of tamoxifen, the main treatment since the 1970s, which has saved millions of lives by reducing the recurrence of cancer after surgery by 50 per cent.

Research findings announced at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in Texas yesterday, and published online by The Lancet, show that the first of a new class of drugs called aromatase inhibitors can cut the rate of recurrence by 76 per cent, with fewer side effects.

The new drugs cost about pounds 1,000 a year compared with pounds 20-pounds 30 for tamoxifen but are only licensed for advanced breast cancer in Britain. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence said it could not consider if the drugs should be made available on the NHS until a licence for first-line use had been granted, which could mean women will have to pay privately.

The results of the five-year trial involving 9,300 women, the largest conducted for breast cancer, show that women taking the aromatase inhibitor anastrozole (brand name Arimidex) were less likely to have their cancer spread, and lived longer.

Results from earlier trials have shown the benefits of aromatase inhibitors over tamoxifen but until now doctors have cautioned against using them as a first-line treatment until long-term findings became clear.

Yesterday, researchers said the latest results from the Atac study (Arimidex, Tamoxifen, Alone or in Combination) have heralded a breakthrough in cancer treatment. The drugs are suitable for women who have gone through the menopause and have hormone sensitive cancer - 80 per cent of cases.

Professor Tony Howell, of the Christie Hospital, Manchester, who led the international study, said: "The important thing is that we have now got five-year data and there is no new toxicity [associated with anastrozole]. Fewer patients relapse and it is better tolerated. That is why we are saying that it should be the treatment of choice."

Professor Jack Cuzick, Cancer Research UK head of epidemiology at the Wolfson Institute, London, said: "We are very excited by these results. For post-menopausal women in the UK who have breast cancer - and there are more than 100,000 of them - these data represent long- awaited evidence of a treatment option that will be more effective in preventing their cancer returning while minimising the risk of side effects."

Tamoxifen causes an increased risk of blood clots, strokes and cancer of the womb lining, which is reduced with anastrozole. Five times as many women on tamoxifen have hysterectomies because of concern about changes to the endometrium (womb lining) compared with those on anastrozole.

Anne Donald, 56, from Nuneaton, Warwickshire, started anastrozole treatment in October following a mastectomy and chemotherapy to lessen the risk of side-effects. "I was keen to avoid anything that might make worse what already looked like a weak area. I knew one side-effect of tamoxifen was difficulties with the uterus," she said.

The only problem she had experienced so far was a slight stiffness in the joints. "I am very comfortable and very pleased to be on Arimidex. I had heard of tamoxifen but I hadn't realised that the two drugs were in competition."

Source: Independent, The; London (UK)

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