Lahore (Web Desk): A group of scientists have discovered a new medicine breakthrough that can help in halting breast cancer for a few months and allowing sufferers to live longer than older treatments.
According to the scientists, a new combination of different medicines is proving to be more effective than chemotherapy in preventing the spread of tumors.
This was tested on two patients with hard to treat metastasis with successful results in keeping the tumors at bay.
Around 6000 women with hormone receptor-positive HER2-negative breast cancer could benefit from a new regimen that stopped the disease from progressing for seven months. Carriers of the inherited BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations may soon have access to new pills which will further delay the spread of tumor by three months. This is far more effective as compared to chemotherapy.
Olaparib (Lynparza) can give women living with BRCA-mutated advanced breast cancer significant extra time before their disease progresses, the study found. In a trial conducted by American Society of Clinical Oncology (Asco), patients who received olaparib had 42% lower chance of cancer progression compared to patients who received chemotherapy.
Approximately 1500 women could benefit from the drug. In the study, led by the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York, tumors shrank in about 60% of patients who received olaparib, compared with 29% of those who received chemotherapy.
Olaparib will help cure women who have inherited BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutants – the most common kind of breast cancer. Olaparib is already available for women with BRAC-mutant advanced ovarian cancer and is the first drug to be approved for treating genetic mutations.
