• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Breast Cancer Drug Cuts Relapse

Posted on: Monday, 16 May 2005, 06:00 CDT

A NEW drug could slash the chances of breast cancer returning in 20,000 women, say scientists.

Tests show Letrozole is 19 per cent more effective than the current gold standard treatment Tamoxifen.

The older drug is prescribed to post-menopausal women with early breast cancer after surgery, but after five years it can be harmful.

Letrozole has been used as a follow-up, but experts now say it should become a first choice treatment.

Steve Johnson, consultant oncologist at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, which has tested the drug, said: "It's still early days to know how much it will prolong lives for, but it looks like it can reduce the likelihood of a relapse, which is fantastic news.

"Further analysis needs to be done to know quite how much the survival rates will be affected."

A licence to use it as a first treatment after surgery could be granted this year.

Mr Johnson said: "We need to ensure the mechanisms are available to provide it - at pounds 80 a month it is 10 times more expensive than Tamoxifen but compared to a lot of treatments that is relatively cheap and it's a price worth paying to stop cancer coming back."

Two-thirds of the 40,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer each year have hormone sensitive cancer, where oestrogen causes tumours to grow.

Letrozole works by switching off oestrogen, so if taken immediately after surgery it can prevent secondary cancer. It also causes fewer side-effects.

Mr Johnson said: "Letrozole will be suitable for about 20,000 people.

"Around13,000 women die every year of breast cancer, but we are confident that this will continue to drop as new treatments are developed."

More than 8,000 women worldwide are taking part in the Breast International Group trial of Letrozole - 400 of them in the UK.

Jenny Harrop, 54, of Canterbury, Kent, is on the five-year trial.

The mum-of-two said: "I feel very positive. There's no doubt the trial has played a big part in my recovery."

-MEN could have prostate cancer despite blood test results indicating they are healthy. Sufferers usually have more of a protein called prostate specific antigen, but scientists found a quarter do not.

Dr Chris Hiley, of the Prostate Cancer Charity, said: "The test can miss detecting some cancers and helps identify others that might not need treatment. We are very keen to see its accuracy improved."

Source: Daily Mirror

More News in this Category