The preliminary results were revealed at the largest annual conference for cancer specialists, hosted by the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago.
According to Reuters, Rita Nanda, an oncologist at the University of Chicago, who was not involved in this work, commented on the results, saying: “This is a very important clinical trial that will change the practices of doctors. “.
The treatment, called Ribociclib, was developed by Novartis against the most common type of breast cancer (called HR+/HR2-).
This treatment is already used (in combination with hormone therapy) in patients with advanced cancer with metastases.
The purpose of this new study was to test this drug for early stage (1 to 3) cancers.
Management of the disease usually includes surgery, radiation therapy, and possibly chemotherapy, followed by years of hormone therapy.
Despite this, “a third of patients with stage II breast cancer (…) will have a recurrence,” said University of California oncologist Dennis Salamone, who presented the results at a conference. a press conference. The disease can reappear within two to three decades of diagnosis.
Clinical test
More than 5,000 people took part in the clinical trial, half of whom took ribociclib and hormone therapy, and the other half received hormone therapy alone.
According to preliminary results, the risk of recurrence was reduced by 25% in the group whose members received treatment with ribociclib. According to “Reuters”.
Ribociclib works by targeting proteins (CDK4 and CDK6) that influence the growth of cancer cells.
Two other CDK inhibitor therapies, palbociclib and apimacilib, are also approved for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer.
Epimasiclib was also recently approved in the United States to treat the disease in its early stages, but only for women at high risk of recurrence in whom the lymph nodes are also affected.
Ribociclib could be an option for women whose lymph nodes are unaffected by the infection, according to Rita Nanda.
“There will likely be a lot of discussion about the level of benefit to patients, the type of side effects and which patients actually benefit from using this type of drug,” Reuters said, quoting the head of the department of medical oncology. at the Institut Curie Jean-Yves Berga, during a separate press conference. for prevention.”
More than two million cases of breast cancer are diagnosed each year worldwide, which causes more than 600,000 deaths per year. Most diagnoses are made at an early stage.
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