New drugs ‘help breast cancer patients’
July 23, 2007
Drug therapies available since the 1990s have improved the survival of women with metastatic breast cancer, according to a
new study.
The survival of women with the condition improved by approximately 30 per cent as these drug therapies became more widely used, research published in the journal Cancer suggests.
Women with the cancer survive an average of two years now, as opposed to 18 months in the early 1980s.
Co-author of the research Dr Stephen Chia commented: “Our population-based study of a large cohort of women with a recent
diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer is the first to demonstrate a significant improvement in survival over time.”
The study does not attribute these improvements to a single therapy, but researchers suggest that the drugs thought to be particularly effective were aromatase inhibitors, docetaxel and trastuzumab.
Metastatic breast cancer is the name used to describe the disease when it has spread from the original site in the breast to other tissues or organs around the body.
SOURCE : ADNFCR-554-ID-18220157-ADNFCR© Adfero Ltd