Aromasin shown to increase early breast cancer survival rates
New data has shown that hormone sensitive post-menopausal early breast cancer patients who switch to Pfizer's Aromasin (exemestane tablets) after two to three years of treatment with tamoxifen are 17% more likely to be alive and 25% less likely to have their cancer return than patients who continued with tamoxifen for five years.
New data has shown that hormone sensitive post-menopausal early breast cancer patients who switch to Pfizer's Aromasin (exemestane tablets) after two to three years of treatment with tamoxifen are 17% more likely to be alive and 25% less likely to have their cancer return than patients who continued with tamoxifen for five years.
The Intergroup Exemestane Study (IES) is , according to lead investigator Professor Charles Coombes, director of cancer medicine at Imperial College London, "the only anti-hormonal therapy that has been shown to demonstrate improved overall survival over tamoxifen alone".
A randomised double-blind multinational trial of postmenopausal women with early breast cancer, IES was designed to compare the clinical benefits of switching 2,352 patients to Aromasin after two to three years of tamoxifen against continuing 2,372 patients on tamoxifen for a full five years of therapy. Based on nearly five years of follow-up, the survival benefits were seen in the 97% of the trial population considered to be hormone sensitive.
At 34.5 months of follow-up, the most common side effects were mild-to-moderate and included hot flushes (21.2% for Aromasin vs 19.9% for tamoxifen); fatigue (16.1% vs 14.7%); arthralgia (14.6% vs 8.6%); headache (13.1% vs 10.8%); insomnia (12.4% vs 8.9%) and increased sweating (11.8% vs 10.4%). No significant changes in safety profile were noted, although elevations in bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase and creatinine were more common in patients with early breast cancer receiving Aromasin compared to tamoxifen and placebo.
Earlier results of the IES trial, which led to US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European regulatory approvals for the treatment of early breast cancer, found that postmenopausal hormone receptor positive patients who switched to Aromasin reduced their risk of breast cancer recurring by 35% when compared with patients who stayed on tamoxifen for five years.
Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in women, with more than one million diagnosed each year worldwide. Aromasin is available in more than 80 countries and approved in the early breast cancer setting in more than 40.