Breast cancer drug everolimus 'biggest advance in years' - Telegraph
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`Breast cancer drug everolimus 'biggest advance in years'
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`A new breast cancer drug that has the potential to extend the lives of women with advanced disease by months is being hailed as “one of the
`biggest advances in years”.
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`Breast cancer cell Photo: ALAMY
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`By Stephen Adams, Medical Correspondent
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`6:30AM BST 18 Sep 2012
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`Up to 8,000 women a year could benefit from everolimus, say specialists, after a trial indicated it could "stall" advanced cancer for about four months longer
`than persisting with the same treatment.
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`About 12,000 women die of advanced breast cancer - where it has spread to other organs - every year.
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`Three in four women with advanced breast cancer have a form of the disease that is spurred on by the female sex hormone oestrogen.
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`Many drugs try to block cancer cells from taking up oestrogen or lowering hormone levels, thereby slowing or stopping tumour growth.
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`However, in time cancer cells work out how to negate the effects of the drugs, become resistant, and tumour growth resumes. Chemotherapy, which can have
`extremely debilitating side-effects, is usually then the only option.
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`Everolimus, marketed by Novartis under the brand name Afinitor, is intended for post-menopausal women whose cancers have developed resistance to
`'hormonal' treatments.
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`It works by targeting other proteins in cancer cell, which control how it works and grows.
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`The drug is so recent that trial results, comparing 485 women given the drug and 239 given a dummy pill, are still coming out. However, after 18 months the
`differences are already marked.
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`Among those given a dummy pill and exemestane, which helps prevent oestrogen uptake, tumour growth was stalled by 3.2 months on average. But among those
`given everolimus and exemestane, it was 7.8 months.
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`Professor Stephen Johnston of The Royal Marsden Hospital in London, said the impact was so large that it was "changing the natural history of the disease".
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`He described everolimus as potentially the most significant breakthough for advanced breast cancer since the discovery of drugs that lower oestrogen levels, in
`the mid 1990s.
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`Estimating it could help up to 8,000 women a year, he said: "Everolimus has the potential to redefine the way this common form of advanced breast cancer is
`treated, and importantly offers women an effective alternative to a chemotherapy regime".
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`There are possible side effects, notably inflammation of mouth tissue, rash, tiredness and diarrhoea.
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`But Dr Rachel Greig, of the charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said the drug was an exciting development.
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`She said: “Everolimus is one of the biggest advances in breast cancer treatment in many years.
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`“This drug could make a massive difference to thousands of patients with advanced breast cancer.
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`“While this is by no means a cure, it could give patients several extra months of good quality of life with their families.
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`“Everolimus needs to be assessed by Nice but we are strongly backing it to be made available for those who need it.”
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`© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2016
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`http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/9548828/Breast-cancer-drug-everolimus-big...
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`1/22/2016
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