Switching drugs could cut breast cancer deaths

Switching patients from tamoxifen to exemestane could significantly reduce the number of women dying from post-menopausal breast cancer, research has shown.

A study featured in the Lancet medical journal revealed that women who took tamoxifen for between two and three years before moving over to exemestane had an improved chance of disease-fee survival.

The Intergroup Exemestane Study (IES), conducted by Charles Coombes of Imperial College London and colleagues at the Institute of Cancer Research, could help save thousands of lives.

Women who switched drugs were 17 per cent more likely to survive early stage breast cancer.

Tamoxifen, which is usually given to patients for five years, already achieves survival rates of around 34 per cent meaning combining the drugs offers huge potential.

“This study shows that, in order to get best results, patients need to be treated with a sequence of anti-hormonal treatments,” said Professor Coombes. “Just giving one or other drug, such as has been done in some other studies, has not been shown to give added benefit in terms of improved survival.

“The task now is to determine what other drugs should be given in sequence to prevent cancer cells that have become resistant to exemestane from growing.”

Professor Judith Bliss, director of the Cancer Research UK clinical trials and statistics unit at the Institute of Cancer Research, added: “To the many postmenopausal breast cancer patients around the world this new research offers the hope of improved treatment options.”

More than 30,000 post-menopausal women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year.