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Better to Combine Breast Cancer Meds?
– Reported, August 3, 2012
(Ivanhoe Newswire) – Scientists have shown in recent research that the combination of the medication anastrozole with the medication fulvestrant is more effective treating metastatic breast cancer in postmenopausal women then these medications alone.
Postmenopausal women with previously untreated metastatic breast cancer were randomly assigned receive either 1 mg of anastrozole every day, with crossover to fulvestrant alone strongly encouraged if the disease progressed, or anastrozole and fulvestrant in combination.
Patients were stratified according to prior or no prior receipt of adjuvant tamoxifen therapy. Fulvestrant was administered intramuscularly at a dose of 500 mg on day 1 and 250 mg on days 14 and 28 and monthly thereafter. The primary end point was progression-free survival, with overall survival designated as a pre-specified secondary outcome.
Scientists discovered the combination of anastrozole and fulvestrant was superior to anastrozole alone or sequential anastrozole and fulvestrant for the treatment of HR-positive metastatic breast cancer, despite the use of a dose of fulvestrant that was below the current standard.
SOURCE: New England Journal of Medicine, August 2012
