Three-drug treatment combo ‘holds back aggressive breast cancer for a year’
TRIPLE THREAT
The treatment could benefit thousands of British women
- Sam Blanchard, Health Correspondent
A NEW triple threat drug combination could hold aggressive breast cancer at bay for an extra year, a trial found.
Adding the medicine inavolisib to an already used pair of drugs delayed the need for chemotherapy by almost two years.
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It prevented tumours from growing for an average of 17 months, compared to seven months in patients using the standard drug pairing palbociclib and fulvestrant.
An estimated 1,000 British women per year could benefit.
The combo works for women with a specific breast cancer type called HR+ HER2- with a PIK3CA mutation, which accounts for about three in 10 cases.
Professor Kristian Helin, chief of The Institute of Cancer Research in London, said: “We need to tackle treatment resistance head-on to continue improving survival rates.
“This triple combination approach effectively shuts down cancer’s escape routes, giving people with metastatic breast cancer the opportunity to live well for longer.”
The trial included 325 patients with aggressive and advanced breast cancer from 28 countries.
Cancers shrank in two thirds of people receiving the triple drug combination, compared to 28 per cent of those on standard treatment.
Study author Professor Nicholas Turner, of the Royal Marsden NHS hospital in London, said: “This therapy not only helped patients live longer but it more than doubled the time before their cancer progressed or worsened.
“It also gave them more time before needing chemotherapy which is something that patients really fear and want to delay for as long as possible.”
“These results give us confidence that this treatment could become the new go-to option.”
The study was presented at the conference of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
BREAST cancer is the most common type of cancer in the UK.
The majority of women who get it are over 50, but younger women and, in rare cases, men can also get breast cancer.
If it’s treated early enough, breast cancer can be prevented from spreading to other parts of the body.
Breast cancer can have a number of symptoms, but the first noticeable symptom is usually a lump or area of thickened breast tissue.
Most breast lumps aren’t cancerous, but it’s always best to have them checked by your doctor. You should also speak to your GP if you notice any of the following:
- a change in the size or shape of one or both breasts
- discharge from either of your nipples (which may be streaked with blood)
- a lump or swelling in either of your armpits
- dimpling on the skin of your breasts
- a rash on or around your nipple
- a change in the appearance of your nipple, such as becoming sunken into your breast
Source: NHS
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