Breast cancer drug "unprecedented" in extending lives

A new breast cancer drug from Roche has shown “unprecedented” benefits in extending lives in a clinical trial and experts urged its widespread use for women with an aggressive form of the disease.

Patients with a type of breast cancer known as HER2 positive, which makes up about a quarter of all breast cancers, who were given Perjeta on top of older medicine Herceptin and chemotherapy lived 15.7 months longer than those on Herceptin and chemotherapy alone.

That is the longest extension to survival ever seen for a drug studied in metastatic breast cancer and also an unusually good result for any type of metastatic cancer, where disease has spread to other parts of the body.

The result is a vindication of combining medicines that fight tumor cells in a variety of ways.

Both Herceptin and Perjeta are antibodies designed to block the function of HER2, a protein produced by a cancer-linked gene. Perjeta, also known as pertuzumab, binds to a different part of the same protein, which makes combining the two drugs extra effective.

“The results, I think, are phenomenal,” lead researcher Sandra Swain from the Washington Hospital Center told the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) annual congress in Madrid on Sunday.

“The survival improvement of nearly 16 months … is unprecedented among studies of metastatic breast cancer.”

Perjeta, which was approved by regulators two years ago, was tested in the Roche-backed study involving more than 800 women.

Researchers had previously reported the Perjeta drug regimen significantly extended progression-free survival, or the period of time patients live without their disease worsening, but the final overall survival data has taken longer to collect.

The median overall survival time was 56.5 months for those given Perjeta against the already impressive 40.8 months for patients taking only the older drugs.

Looking at the study results a different way, the risk of dying was reduced by 32 percent for women who received the Perjeta regimen compared to those who got Herceptin and chemotherapy.

While both Perjeta and Herceptin have side effects, including rash, diarrhea and a potentially adverse impact on heart function, using the two drugs together did not make these issues any worse.

“I think these data are really compelling,” said Eric Van Cutsem of the University of Leuven, who was not involved in the research. “When you see in breast cancer such a big change in survival with not a lot of cardio-toxicities then that is really practice-changing.”

REMARKABLE RESULTS

Swain and Javier Cortes, another researcher on the study from the Vall D’Hebron Institute of Oncology in Barcelona, said the results suggested using Perjeta should now be the standard of care for HER2 positive breast cancer patients.

A favorable reaction from oncologists will underpin expectations of strong sales for Perjeta, which analysts currently expect to sell $3.1 billion a year by 2018, according to consensus forecasts compiled by Thomson Reuters Cortellis.

But it poses a challenge for healthcare providers, since Perjeta and Herceptin are costly injectable drugs and the multiple-drug regimen promises to strain budgets.

In the United States, the monthly price of Perjeta is approximately $5,900, while Herceptin costs around $5,300, a Roche spokeswoman said. Prices in Europe are lower.

For Roche, Perjeta is an important new product that should help defend its position in breast cancer, following the success of Herceptin, which was first approved in 1998.

The company said the latest data would be submitted to regulatory authorities around the world for inclusion in the prescribing information for Perjeta.

The Swiss drugmaker also has another related drug called Kadcyla, which is also being tested in combination with Perjeta. Some analysts believe Kadcyla’s prospects could be curbed if results from that combination are not better than the impressive findings reported this weekend.

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Breast cancer drug "unprecedented" in extending lives

Soy could speed up spread of breast cancer – study

NEW YORK, United States, Wednesday September 10, 2014 – Experts have cautioned that eating soy, in the form of tofu or milk, could speed up the rate at which breast cancer cells spread in women already diagnosed with the disease.

The warning came after scientists at the Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York studied 140 women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer.

Between seven and 30 days before the women had surgery to remove their tumours, half of them were given soy protein powder containing genistein, while the other half received a placebo.

The researchers compared tumour tissues from before and after the operation. In the women who had taken the soy supplement, changes were found in the expressions of certain genes that are known to promote cell growth.

These findings suggested that soy protein could potentially accelerate the progression of the disease.

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In the words of the study, which was published in the September 4 edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute: “These data raise concern that soy may exert a stimulating effect on breast cancer in a sub set of women.”

Participants in the study had recently had breast biopsies, were diagnosed with stage one or two breast cancer, and were scheduled to have a mastectomy or lumpectomy in two to three weeks.

According to co-author of the study Jacqueline Bromberg: “Although the genes were being expressed, it is not clear that this will translate into actual tumour growth. But the concern is that there may be the potential.

“Only 20 percent of those patients who took the soy had really high levels of the genistein metabolite.”

Dr Bromberg said the reasons behind the disparity are unclear, adding that there is no way to predict who would have this reaction after consuming soy.

She went on to explain that of the women with high genistein levels, a few of them experienced changes in a specified set of genes that are known to affect breast cancer cell growth, death, or some aspect of breast cancer pathology.

Women who consumed around 51.6 grams of soy, the equivalent of about four cups of soy milk a day, exhibited the changes.

It was thought likely that those who eat soy regularly could “reasonably consume that amount” daily, particularly vegetarians and those who do not eat dairy products.

The scientists cautioned that women living in Asian countries could be especially at risk, due to the high levels of soy and tofu in traditional diets.

The research did not address the question of whether soy would have any effect on women who have not already been diagnosed with breast cancer.

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Soy could speed up spread of breast cancer – study

Cervical cancer lobby

News

Sunday, September 08, 2013

THE Jamaica Cancer Society (JCS) has joined forces with the Caribbean Cancer Alliance (CCA) in the effort to make cervical cancer screening accessible to all Caribbean women.A cervical e-petition, which was launched earlier this year by the members of the Alliance, seeks to engage and lobby Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) to make the service more affordable and accessible.Executive Director of the JCS, Yulit Gordon, said that over 2.5 million signatures are required for the petition to be taken to Caricom.She noted that the CCA is hoping to get more than one million signatures from Jamaica.Gordon is asking Jamaicans, and by extension, Caricom nationals, to sign the petition by logging on to the JCS website (www.jamaicacancersociety.org) and clicking on the area that encourages persons to sign.“It only takes a few seconds and in the long term, we will be reaping huge dividends as it relates to safeguarding our women’s health,” Gordon stated.According to Gordon, over 600,000 cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed within the Caribbean each year, with over 25,000 women succumbing to this disease. She said the JCS is working to implement the necessary strategic programmes to protect women from cervical cancer.She said that the organisation has a dedicated cervical cancer unit, as well as a sustained public education and outreach programme that offers accurate and timely information on cervical cancer.

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Cervical cancer lobby

Talks advanced for acquisition of cancer treatment machines, says health minister

News

Monday, September 02, 2013

HEALTH Minister Fenton Ferguson says that discussions are advanced with a leading Canadian hospital for the acquisition of equipment to improve cancer treatment in the public health sector.He said that, during a recent visit to Canada, he was able to make “significant progress” with the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre for the supply of two Linear Accelerator machines, which are used for radiotherapy treatment.“We are closer to achieving our objective of getting two Linear Accelerator machines. As it is now, we only have one in the private sector, and we are moving to have two in the public sector,” the minister said, while addressing Friday’s ground-breaking ceremony for expansion of the St Ann’s Bay Regional Hospital in St Ann.He stated that the acquisition of the machines “will take a tremendous burden off our cancer patients as the Government was committed to reducing the cost of cancer treatment and care.“Cancer care remains a burden for individuals and families, and part of my mandate is to work to get cancer care down to a certain manageable level. There is a particular drug that is going at over $200,000 per dose, and for persons with breast cancer, you need 18 doses. We must find a way to get those prices down,” he stated.The minister said that, even as he works on improving care, he also has to encourage Jamaicans to adopt healthier lifestyle choices to reduce cancers and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs).“This is why I have been so steadfast in my arguments against smoking in specified public places. We are facing a debilitating problem where NCDs are concerned. High blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, respiratory diseases; these NCDs are responsible for over 70 per cent of deaths in Jamaica,” he stated.“Tobacco exposure is the most serious factor for the NCDs. The ban on smoking in specified public places will essentially lead to improvement in the quality of air we breathe, and over time, reduce the prevalence of NCDs, including respiratory illnesses and heart disease,” he pointed out.The minister said that countries that have adopted anti-smoking legislation have started to see progress. He cited the case of Northern Ireland, which introduced legislation in 2004 and within two to three years, “they started to see less heart attacks, less strokes, and in general significant reduction in NCDs. So this is not just an anti-tobacco crusade; it is a pro-health crusade”.— JISHealth Minister Fenton Ferguson reports on developments in improving cancer treatment locally, during the ground-breaking ceremony for the expansion of the St Ann Bay Regional Hospital in St Ann on Friday.

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Talks advanced for acquisition of cancer treatment machines, says health minister