New effective treatment in metastatic breast cancer?
New effective treatment in metastatic breast cancer?
21 Jan 2015Women with metastatic breast cancer benefited from eribulin receiving it as a first, second, or third line chemotherapy regimen. Eribulin proved to be an active and well-tolerated therapy, to women who had all been previously treated with both an anthracycline and a taxane in either the adjuvant or metastatic setting.
These are the results of the first study to address the early use of eribulin either as a first or second line setting metastatic breast cancer, raising hopes that eribulin may be also particularly active and effective in triple negative metastatic breast cancer (MBC) as well. It must be noted that the study does not show that Eribulin is superior to capecitabine, another kind of chemotherapy.
Promising clinical results from international trial
This phase 3 randomized trial assigned 1,099 women who had previously been treated with an anthracycline or a taxane to either eribulin or capecitabine as their first, second, or third line chemotherapy for advanced MBC. The study's stratification factors were human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2) status and geographic region.
"While there is not a statistically significant difference in overall survival with eribulin in comparison to capecitabine, the median overall survival seen with eribulin is in fact numerically slightly superior to that of capecitabine," explained Kaufman.
Eribulin has been approved in numerous countries in the third line or latter setting for the treatment of MBC and is increasingly widely used. It is the only chemotherapeutic agent shown to have a survival benefit for patients with MBC in the third line or latter chemotherapeutic setting. Given previous research findings, and now findings from this large international trial, there has been great interest from oncologists and other clinicians in the potential impact that eribulin might have earlier in the course of MBC.
“Eribulin may improve the cure rate for other subtypes of breast cancer”
Plans are underway to proceed with pilot adjuvant and neoadjuvant studies and further studies in MBC. "We are currently developing further studies evaluating the utility of eribulin in treating women with triple negative disease, either alone, or in combination regimens with other therapies," Kaufman commented. "We are additionally planning further research evaluating the role of eribulin in other subtypes of breast cancer, particularly in early stage breast cancer, where this therapy may in fact have a great impact, and improve the cure rate for early stage disease."
Source: Science Daily