Breakthrough for cancer treatment
Hundreds of lives could be saved each year in Northern Ireland thanks to a breakthrough in breast cancer treatment.
The findings of a study, released yesterday in the United States, show that post-menopausal women who switched to the drug exemestane, or aromasin, increased their chance of survival by 17 per cent.
Consultant oncologist at Belfast City Hospital Dr Seamus McAleer said the results were ''very encouraging'' and that a number of Ulster patients had already been using the treatment.
"This is the first study that has shown an actual improvement in survival. That is actually quite important,'' he said.
"There will be more women alive in the long-term after they switched to exemestane than if they had stayed with tamoxifen.''
He said that for women who were past the menopause, where these drugs were effective, this combination ''not only reduces the risk of relapse, it also gives a very significant improvement in survival in the longer term''.
Dr McAleer said that in Northern Ireland this particular pattern of drug taking had been already recommended to patients over the past year.
However, he pointed out that the drugs only worked with hormone sensitive tumours and in post-menopausal women.
Findings from the IES study, which was conducted in 37 countries, were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (Asco) in Atlanta, Georgia.
The landmark trial signals a change in how breast cancer is treated.
Aromisan is known as an aromatase inhibitor and works by preventing production of the female hormone oestrogen in the fatty tissue, livers and breasts of women whose ovaries no longer function. Oestrogen fuels breast cancer in about two thirds of postmenopausal cases.
The new data from the Intergroup Exemestane Study (IES) provide the first proof that women live longer when their treatment includes an aromatase inhibitor.
British-led researchers looked at 2,352 postmenopausal women with early-stage breast cancer who switched to aromasin after two to three years of tamoxifen treatment.
Women given aromasin, which has the generic name exemestane, had a 15 per cent lower risk of dying than those restricted to tamoxifen.
When only women with hormone-sensitive cancers were included, the improvement rose to 17 per cent.
About 41,000 new cases of breast cancer occur in the UK each year.
Although death rates have come down, the disease still claims the lives of around 12,000 women per year.
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Monday 13 February 2012
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