New Breast Cancer Drug May Cut The Risk Of Death Or Progression By 40%

A new breast cancer drug used in combination with an existing treatment could reduce the risk of death or progression by as much as 40 per cent, it has been revealed. The third phase of the CAPitello-291 trial has just completed and analysed, with the new AstraZeneca (AZ) drug capivasertib demonstrating a powerful impact when used in combination with Faslodex. When trialled on patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-low or negative, locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer, the combination was 40 per cent more effective as an inhibitor than a placebo combined with Faslodex, AZ confirmed. The maker said there was a 95 per cent confidence interval that the drug was as effective as the trial said, with the treatment being effective in the AKT pathway, which includes half of women who have HR positive breast cancer. This will bring new hope to thousands of women seeking private breast cancer treatment. Professor of Molecular Oncology at The Institute of Cancer Research Nicholas Turner said: “These data demonstrate the practice-changing potential of capivasertib as a new treatment option for patients with advanced HR-positive breast cancer.“ Describing the treatment as “potentially first-in-class,” he said the most important aspect is that it “delays disease progression for those who have progressed on, or become resistant to, endocrine therapies and CDK4/6 inhibitors.” Executive vice president for oncology research and development at AZ, Susan Galbraith, noted that capivasertib is “ the first therapy of its kind shown to be effective in a Phase III trial in patients with advanced HR-positive, HER2-low or negative breast cancer.” AZ has also announced that Stage II trials of oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (ngSERD) camizestrant combined with Faslodex had shown a 42 per cent improvement in preventing progression in estrogen-receptor positive or locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer. This rose to 67 per cent for those with ESR1 mutations, accounting for 36.7 per cent of the trial population. These findings were all unveiled at the 2022 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in the US.