According to new findings presented at the National Cancer Research Institute Cancer Conference in Liverpool, United Kingdom, researchers have found that eribulin may extend the lives of women with advanced triple negative breast cancer by an average of 5 months.
For the study, researchers analyzed results from two phase 3 clinical trials that compared eribulin to standard treatment in over 1,800 patients with breast cancer. Both studies demonstrated an improvement of more than 2 months in overall survival, but women with advanced triple negative breast cancer experienced the most significant overall survival improvement compared with patients with other types of breast cancer.
These women achieved a 5-month improvement in overall survival, on average. In addition, women with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative breast cancer who were treated with eribulin achieved a 2-month improvement in overall survival.
Eribulin is a microtubule inhibitor that is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of patients with metastatic breast cancer who have previously received at least two chemotherapy regimens for metastatic disease. The researchers suggest that eribulin is an additional treatment option for patients with advanced breast cancer, but note that it is not a cure.
Eribulin may extend the lives of women with advanced triple negative breast cancer.
The cancer drug eribulin, originally developed from sea sponges, could give women with advanced triple negative breast cancer an average of five extra months of life, according to research presented at the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Cancer Conference in Liverpool today (Monday). Researchers led by Professor Chris Twelves, based at the University of Leeds and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, looked at two major clinical trials of more than 1,800 women with breast cancer that had started to spread to other parts of the body.
The phase III trials – the final stage of testing before deciding whether a drug can be prescribed to patients – compared the survival of women treated with eribulin* to those given standard treatment.
From News Medical
