Cancer drug hope for women
The British-led ATAC trial is the largest breast cancer treatment study conducted and its latest results were presented yesterday at a symposium in San Antonio, Texas, USA.
The data demonstrated that, after nearly four years of treatment, women given anastrozole, which is marketed as Arimidex, were free of disease for longer than those taking tamoxifen.
One of the investigators, Dr Jeffrey Tobias, Professor of Cancer Medicine at University College London Hospital, said that the results represented a major step forward.
“At this stage, the ATAC results suggest that Arimidex may prove to be a better drug than tamoxifen, the most widely used hormonal treatment for more than 20 years.”
The study has been devised and led by British specialists and includes 9,300 patients worldwide, most of whom came from Britain.
It showed, among postmenopausal patients treated with Arimidex, there was a 14% reduction in the risk of recurrence of breast cancer, compared with those taking tamoxifen.
In women with hormone sensitive cancers, the risk reduction was even greater at 18%.
The new 47-month data is an improvement on results released from the ATAC study a year ago.
The percentage of women remaining disease-free for longer on Arimidex, compared with tamoxifen, has increased from 2% at three years to 2.4% at four years.
A separate safety analysis confirmed that women on Arimidex also had fewer side effects, such as blood clots and cancer of the womb lining, than tamoxifen.
“News from last year’s analysis was very encouraging, but we have been waiting for data on longer-term benefits,” Dr Tobias said. “These 47-month results will be seen as an important additional step forward for patients and physicians alike.”
Based upon earlier results from the ATAC study, Arimidex was recently approved for the treatment of postmenopausal women with a form of early invasive breast cancer who are unable to take tamoxifen.
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