Improving Breast Cancer Survival Rates
10 March 2008 - Changing the way women are treated for breast cancer could improve their overall chance of survival, according to a study led by researchers from The Institute and Imperial College London. The Intergroup Exemestane Study (IES) involved 4,724 women from 37 different countries. It recruited breast cancer patients who had passed the menopause and whose cancers were thought to be sensitive to hormone treatments. It included women who were currently taking tamoxifen and who remained free from breast cancer after 2-3 years of tamoxifen treatment.
The study then compared the benefits of switching to a drug called exemestane or continuing on tamoxifen for the remainder of a 5-year period. The study showed that switching to exemestane, 2-3 years after commencing standard therapy with the drug tamoxifen, could cut the risk of death for certain women by a further 17% compared with using tamoxifen alone. This new research is the first to show that early benefits of using tamoxifen followed by exemestane are maintained after treatment has stopped.
Additionally, the sequential use of tamoxifen and exemestane was shown to be safe and to minimise the side-effects of both treatments. Professor Judith Bliss, Director of the Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials and Statistics Unit at The Institute said: “This study shows that treating women with a sequence of anti-hormonal treatments appears to lead to an improved long-term outcome. The task now is to determine just how long to give treatment for and in what order to give the maximum protection to prevent cancer cells becoming resistant to hormone therapy.”
Professor Judith Bliss leads The Institute's Clinical Trials and Statistics Unit
