CNN
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Results from phase 3 clinical trials show that experimental treatments show promise in people with the most common form of advanced breast cancer.
of Court details announced Thursday at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. That is, AstraZeneca’s Capivasertib Faslodex (Fulvestrant), an endocrine therapy already used to treat advanced breast cancer, had a median time to disease progression-free compared with 3.6 months in people receiving placebo and endocrine therapy It was 7.2 months.
The trial enrolled 708 adults with HR-positive, HER2-low or -negative breast cancer whose disease had relapsed or progressed during or after specific prior therapy.
About three-quarters of women with metastatic breast cancer have HR-positive breast cancer.
Capivasertib is an oral treatment given twice daily on an intermittent schedule, with 4 days on and 3 days off. According to the Cancer Institute, the drug blocks the activity of a cancer-causing protein molecule called AKT.
Findings for progression-free survival were “a significant improvement,” said Dr. Harold Burstein, a physician at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is not involved in research.
“The good news is, looking at the data, it appears to be a better-tolerated product than some existing drugs that target the same pathway.”
Dr. Otis Brawley, a professor at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University and former chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, agreed the findings were positive. It’s a fishy, non-objective parameter,” he said.
“We see a reduction in the risk of progression, but not a reduction in the risk of death,” said Brawley, who was not involved in the study. This means that more research is needed to see if treatment reduces the risk of death.
He points to the anticancer drug Avastin, which was initially touted as having benefits for progression-free survival in metastatic breast cancer.
“They forgot the other part of the trial, overall survival. Does it make people live longer? Does it cure people? When that part of the study was done three years later, Avastin shorten people’s livessaid Brawley.
While that may not be the case with capivasertib, it is important to continue to monitor the results of further trials, he said.
Overall, scientists have made great strides in treating breast cancer.
a study A paper published in October found a 43% reduction in total mortality and 460,000 fewer deaths from breast cancer over the 30-year period from 1989 to 2020.
Findings for capivasertib have not been peer-reviewed or published in a professional journal.
Mr. Burstein said he San Antonio Breast Cancer SymposiumWith the positive results of research on breast cancer treatments, he believes there will be more options soon, and he is confident capivasertib will be one of them.
“That’s good,” Burstein said. “More arrows in the quiver. It’s all very positive development and very encouraging.”
