Cheap generic drugs ‘can reduce breast cancer deaths’

Two new studies have been published showing how certain inexpensive therapies can help improve survival prospects for postmenopausal women with early breast cancer.

The first, conducted by the University of Sheffield and appearing in The Lancet, was a meta-analysis of 26 previous trials, involving 18,766 women. It revealed that treatment with a class of drugs called bisphosphonates – usually used to treat osteoporosis – can cut the risk of breast cancer recurring in postmenopausal women and significantly extend survival.

Moreover, the benefit appeared to be irrespective of the type of bisphosphonate used, the treatment duration, the size of the tumour, whether it had spread to the lymph nodes, or whether or not it was oestrogen-receptor positive.

Meanwhile, the second study, by the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, collated evidence from 30,000 postmenopausal women in nine randomised trials assessing the use of endocrine therapies.

It revealed that five years of treatment with aromatase inhibitor endocrine therapies produced somewhat better survival rates than five years of standard endocrine therapy with tamoxifen.

The University of Oxford's Professor Richard Gray, the lead statistician for both studies, said: “These studies provide really good evidence that both of these inexpensive, generic drugs can help to reduce breast cancer mortality in postmenopausal women."