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Cancer drug ‘could double life expectancy’
By JENNY HOPE, Daily Mail
Last updated at 12:22 04 April 2006
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Cancer drug ‘could double life expectancy’
By JENNY HOPE, Daily Mail
Last updated at 12:22 04 April 2006
Comments (7) Add to My Stories
Around 42,000 British women a year are diagnosed with breast cancer. Up to 20 per cent have advanced forms
A new breast cancer ‘wonder drug’ could be available next year after stunning trial results. Doctors say lapatinib could double the life expectancy of patients suffering from advanced forms of the disease.
It was shown to work better than the highly-rated Herceptin, and has the advantage of being taken in pill form rather than intravenously. It also has fewer serious side effects.
Trials on the drug were halted six months early because lapatinib had already hit the target it was set - to slow progression of the disease by more than 50 per cent.
It worked in patients whose cancer had returned, even after using Herceptin, and who had otherwise run out of options. Makers GlaxoSmithKline are rushing through licence applications in the UK and US. Around 42,000 British women a year are diagnosed with breast cancer. Up to 20 per cent have advanced forms, which have spread locally or to other parts of the body, including the brain.
The average survival rate for women with advanced breast cancer is two years. The trials were designed to show whether a combination of lapatinib and a chemotherapy pill called Xeloda could help women with advanced cancer. Half of the test volunteers had the combination treatment while the remainder were given Xeloda alone. But the experiment was wound up after analysis of interim results on 321 women showed it had successfully achieved its aim more than six months earlier than predicted. More details will be revealed at a cancer conference in the US later this month.
Paolo Paoletti, senior vicepresident of the oncology medicine development centre at GSK, said: “We are extremely encouraged by these data which suggest that the drug may offer significant benefits as an oral medication in combination with chemotherapy for patients with advanced breast cancer, and whose disease has progressed on previous treatment regimens, including Herceptin.” The women involved all had a particular type of breast cancer driven by the so-called HER2 gene. This fuels the growth of breast tumours in up to a quarter of cases.
Herceptin has been shown to reduce the risk of recurrence by 50 per cent in HER2 positive women and is licensed for use in advanced cases, but it fails to work in at least one in three of such cases.
Legal actions have followed the refusal of some health authorities to allow patients Herceptin. It costs the NHS around £21,000 for a year-long course of treatment.
Lapatinib, which has not yet been priced, is bound to be expensive compared with long-established anti-cancer therapies, but, as a pill, it is at least cheaper to administer than Herceptin.
Although doctors will be able to prescribe it after licensing, it will still have to go through the Government’s ‘rationing’ body, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence-before becoming widely available on the NHS.
It is likely the drug will work both in women who have the genetic HER2 cancer type and those who do not, but GSK currently only has data on HER2 patients.
In addition, lapatinib may work in HER2 positive women who have developed resistance to Herceptin. It also appears to have more potential than Herceptin to slow tumours in the brain. The cancer spreads to the brain in up to 30 per cent of HER2 positive women.
Lapatinib may also work against other solid tumours, including kidney cancer. Professor John Toy, medical director at Cancer Research UK, said: "This news appears to be very promising for women with HER2 positive breast cancer that has returned despite treatment with Herceptin.
“Although these are very early results and it will be important to see the precise details of the trial data, it is important to note that the Independent Data Monitoring Committee stopped the trial early and all the women on the trial are to be offered the new drug.” Dr Sarah Rawlings, head of policy and information at Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said: "This is potentially welcome news for women with advanced breast cancer and could be another option in the increasing armoury of breast cancer drugs available.