Breast Cancer Drug Will Cut Death Risk By 30pc
By JENNY HOPE
THOUSANDS of women’s lives could be saved by a new breast cancer drug, doctors have revealed.
Research shows for the first time that Arimidex cuts the risk of dying by nearly onethird compared with tamoxifen, the current standard treatment.
It almost halves the risk of cancer returning and reduces the chances of it spreading to other parts of the body.
The results are from a study of postmenopausal women who were switched from tamoxifen to the new drug after two years.
Women whose cancer is stimulated by the hormone oestrogen usually take tamoxifen for five years after surgery as it improves their chances of beating the disease. But the latest findings show Arimidex is even better and could mean it becomes first-line therapy for early breast cancer in postmenopausal women.
Although it is being hailed as the biggest breakthrough for 30 years, women cannot be guaranteed to get it until it has been approved by the Government’s ‘rationing body’ the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence which is not due to issue guidelines until 2007.
Arimidex belongs to a new class of drugs called aromatase inhibitors aimed at women whose cancer is oestrogen-sensitive.
It shuts down the body’s supply altogether, while tamoxifen works by blocking oestrogen’s effects on cancer cells. These drugs only work in women after the menopause.
At least 10,000 women a year would qualify for Arimidex while thousands of others could switch treatments. But the Pounds 4,000 cost of each five-year course of Arimidex, which is made by AstraZeneca, far exceeds the Pounds 540 bill for tamoxifen.
It is, however, much cheaper than Herceptin, which is still awaiting a licence and NICE approval. That helps women with a different kind of breast cancer and costs Pounds 21,000 for a year’s treatment.
Many specialists are already prescribing Arimidex, which has the non-brand name anastrozole, on the NHS.
Jeffrey Tobias, Professor of Cancer Medicine at University College and Middlesex School of Medicine, said the study’s ‘impressive’ results were the most conclusive so far as they showed women’s lives were being saved.
He said: ‘Survival is the ultimate goal in the treatment of early breast cancer and these results provide compelling evidence that anastrozole has the potential to save the lives of significantly more breast cancer patients.
‘It is clear that at whatever point you use it, anastrozole is a more effective alternative to tamoxifen.’ He said his own hospital’s guidelines already recommend the drug for women at high risk because the cancer had spread to lymph nodes.
The latest study pools data from three key international trials involving more than 4,000 women who have undergone surgery and received tamoxifen for two years.
With women who were then switched to Arimidex there was a 29 per cent cut in the risk of dying, compared with staying on tamoxifen.
The risk of the disease returning was reduced by 45 per cent and the risk of the disease spreading from the breast to other areas was reduced by 39 per cent.
Women taking Arimidex had an increased risk of joint pain and fracture, but serious side effects such as cancer of the womb lining and blood-clotting disorders are significantly lower compared with tamoxifen.
The findings were released yesterday at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in the U.S.
Around 41,000 women in the UK develop breast cancer each year 33,000 of them after the menopause and it claims 13,000 lives.
Breast cancer surgeon Professor Mike Baum, of University College London, said: ‘We know the risk of the cancer returning peaks in the first two years after surgery and that women should be given an aromatase inhibitor at the earliest opportunity to minimise the risk in this crucial period.
‘These significant new data highlight that for those women who are already taking tamoxifen, greater benefit may still be achieved by replacing tamoxifen with Arimidex.’ j.hope@dailymail.co.uk