Pfizer’s Aromasin ‘extents disease-free survival’

Pfizer breast cancer drug Aromasin can extend disease-free survival rates, according to a new study.

The Canadian economic study – Cost-effectiveness of Switching to Exemestane Versus Continued Tamoxifen as Adjuvant Therapy for Postmenopausal Women with Primary Breast Cancer – also revealed that moving from tamoxifen to Aromasin, which is an oral steriodal aromatase inhibitor exemestane, can also be cost effective, according to publisher John Wiley and Sons.

John Wiley also states that as survival rates for breast cancer are increasing – due to “a greater understanding of molecular biology” – the cost-effectiveness of various treatments is coming under greater scrutiny.

In addition to the Aromasin study, a second piece of research, also published in the August issue of Cancer – Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Trastuzumab in the Adjuvant Setting for Treatment of HER2-Positive Breast Cancer – found that Herceptin can also increase life expectancy rates at a low cost.

Herceptin – an anti-HER2 receptor monoclonal antibody otherwise known as tratuzumab – was discovered by Genetech.