New drug could tackle hard-to-treat form of breast cancer
New drug could tackle hard-to-treat form of breast cancer
"A new drug could be the first effective targeted treatment against Triple Negative Breast Cancer, which affects one in seven sufferers of the disease ".
The drug, known as BSI-201, could help tackle the hard-to-treat form of breast cancer.
Patients with this type of cancer do not respond to the three main drugs used to treat breast cancer and so must rely upon chemotherapy, which can have harmful side effects.
Around 15 per cent of breast cancer sufferers are diagnosed with the triple negative form.
While the three other major forms of breast cancer can be treated with either hormone therapy such as tamoxifen or the drug Herceptin, triple negative cancer cells are not vulnerable to these medications.
Laboratory studies and early trials of the drug, which is produced by drug firm Sanofi Aventis, have shown it appears to be effective at combating this form of cancer when used with other chemotherapy drugs.
A major clinical trial is now under way in the United States to test how effective the drug is.
But cancer experts claim the drug is showing great promise and could be the next so called "wonder drug" against breast cancer.
One leading oncologist said: "This is one of the most exciting potential treatments we have had for a long time, but we need to carry out large clinical trials before we know how effective it will be."
Women suffering from triple negative breast cancer have faults in two genes known as BRCA1 and BRCA2, which are important for repairing DNA in cells, which is important for keeping cells healthy.
Scientists have found that cells with these faults are particularly sensitive to a type of potential breast cancer treatments known as poly-ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors.
BSI-201 is the most developed of these drugs and it causes the cancerous cells with these faulty genes to become unstable and so die.
Phase 2 trials in the USA have shown that when used in conjunction with traditional non-targeted chemotherapy drugs, BSI helped to reduce tumors.
They found 62 per cent of patients given the drug along with chemotherapy treatments had clinical benefits compared to 21 per cent who received chemotherapy alone.
The combined treatment also increased overall survival from 5.7 months to 9.2 months when compared to the chemotherapy only patients.
Dr. Sarah Rawlings, Head of Policy and Information at Breakthrough Breast Cancer said: "We now hope to see if PARP inhibitors could become an option for women whose breast cancer is caused by this genetic fault."
Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in the USA and UK.
Most of the recent major advances in treatment for it have targeted the types of the disease which are linked to two hormones, and to a kind of protein, called HER-2.
One of the greatest breakthroughs was the development of Herceptin, which specifically targeted HER2-positive cancers, which are particularly aggressive.
About one quarter of the breast cases diagnosed in the UK each year are responsive to the drug, which was finally approved for widespread use by the NHS in 2006, following furious battles when women were denied the treatment.
Research has found that when Herceptin was combined with chemotherapy, the breast tumor was completely eliminated in 55 per cent of patients, compared with 19 per cent of those patients given only chemotherapy.
Before that, the development of the oestrogen-blocking drug tamoxifen was one of the most significant breakthroughs in breast cancer.
The drug, which has been used for more than 20 years, has saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of women worldwide.
However, last year a study found that the drug significantly increased the chances of developing a rare, but more aggressive type of cancer, in the tumor-free breast.
The study of more than 1,000 breast cancer survivors treated with drugs like tamoxifen found it reduced the risk of the disease returning by 60 per cent. However, the chance of later being diagnosed with a much rarer form of breast cancer increased dramatically. One in three of the women in the study were later diagnosed with tumors which do not respond to hormone treatment. However, researchers said the benefit of the treatment in attacking the first cancer outweighed later risks.
New drug could tackle hard-to-treat form of breast cancer
By: alam.md
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