Hope for women as breast cancer drug prevents relapses

A BREAST cancer drug which prevents relapses and the return of tumours will offer new hope to women living with cancer after other treatments have expired, the Irish Cancer Society said yesterday.

A spokesperson for the charity welcomed as “encouraging” results of clinical trials in Canada which found the drug, Femara, reduced the risk of death by 39% in women who took it, compared with women who took a placebo.

The news will be particularly relevant for women who have completed the standard five years of tamoxifen therapy. Tamoxifen works well in the treatment of oestrogen-receptor tumours, but women can become intolerant to it and are generally advised to come off it after five years.

For the study, Dr Paul Goss, from Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto, studied 5,100 women who took tamoxifen for five years.

The study showed that use of Femara after this period reduced the spread of cancer, called metastatis, by 40%.

Femara, known generically as letrozole, is an aromatose inhibitor, a type of drug that works in post-menopausal women by reducing levels of oestrogen, the female hormone which stimulates some cancers.

“This is great news, there’s another choice for women who can continue with treatment by aromatose inhibitors after using tamoxifen,” said Naomi Fitzgibbon of the Irish Cancer Society. “This can be a very anxious time for women who feel reassured while they are being treated with tamoxifen. They feel at a loss when they stop taking it.”

The findings add to evidence that aromatose inhibitors are a valuable weapon in the fight against breast cancer, which affects an average of 1700 in Ireland each year. There are on average 600 deaths from the disease each year.

For information and advice on breast cancer contact: The Irish Cancer Society’s Action Breast Cancer Helpline on Freefone 1800 30 90 40.