Faslodex launched in UK

Faslodex (fulvestrant), a new breast cancer drug from AstraZeneca, has been launched in the UK for the treatment of post-menopausal, oestrogen receptor positive advanced breast cancer.

It is the first new hormonal drug for breast cancer to be launched in the UK since the introduction of aromatase inhibitors.

Oestrogen is responsible for fuelling tumour growth in around 75% of all cases of breast cancer in postmenopausal women. Faslodex binds, blocks and degrades the oestrogen receptor in breast cancer cells, effectively starving the cancer of oestrogen, which would normally stimulate its growth.

The approval of Faslodex is based on data from two major trials involving more than 800 women, which compared the efficacy and tolerability of Faslodex to that of Arimidex (anastrozole) in the treatment of advanced breast cancer in postmenopausal women whose disease had relapsed on previous hormonal therapies. These trials showed that Faslodex was at least as effective as Arimidex with respect to efficacy and was also very well tolerated.^1,2

Faslodex is administered as a once monthly intra-muscular injection, which may offer compliance benefits. Being a hormonal treatment, it does not cause the side effects commonly associated with chemotherapy.

'The beauty of Faslodex is that it is not only a new hormonal treatment, but it has a different mode of action, and overcomes the problem of resistance to tamoxifen,' said Professor Anthony Howell from the Christie Hospital in Manchester. 'It means we will have something else to offer to women when tamoxifen stops working.'