Novartis reveals positive new Femara data

Novartis has revealed new data for its breast cancer drug, Femara (letrozole), showing that its users demonstrated a “significantly” reduced chance of breast cancer recurring, including in women who are more likely to suffer recurrence.

The new data, collated over four years, also shows that Femara protects against the spread of cancer into other parts of the body to a “significantly” greater extent than tamoxifen.

Specifically, the analysis demonstrated that post-menopausal women with hormone-sensitive early breast cancer had an 18 per cent reduction in the risk of breast cancer recurring, while the chances of the cancer spreading to other areas was reduced by 19 per cent.

Furthermore, disease-free survival time was improved in women who have a greater risk of recurrence due to the disease being present in lymph nodes. In these cases, the possibility of recurrence was cut by 23 per cent.

Diane Young, vice president and global head of clinical development at Novartis Oncology, commented: “Longer follow-up data out to more than four years in 5,000 women provide the most compelling evidence to date that Femara helps to protect against breast cancer relapse in postmenopausal women.”

She added that the company is committed to furthering research in helping to define the “optimal” treatment for women with breast cancer.

In August, Femara was approved by NICE to treat post-menopausal women with hormone-receptor positive breast cancer.

Novartis claimed that the approval represented the replacement of tamoxifen as the “gold standard” early breast cancer therapy.