The most basic of diabetes drugs-metformin-improved survival for breast cancer patients and could prove effective in treating those with endometrial hyperplasia, according to results being presented at the American Society for Clinical Oncology in Chicago.
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Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide, with almost 1.7 million new cases diagnosed in 2012 – the second most common cancer overall – according to the World Cancer Research Fund.
“We are now unable to release the data presented at the ASCO, due to a copyright agreement with the society”, OBI Pharma chairman Michael Chang (張念慈) said.
Professor Roy Herbst, chief of medical oncology at Yale Cancer Centre in the USA, said precision medicine was ” about finding the right key for the lock, finding out what it is that is driving the tumour, what makes it tick”.
There is no embargo on information, Chang added.
In the new study published in JAMA Oncology on June 4, Saad Khan, from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and colleagues said that a chunk of lung cancer patients with autoimmune disease are not eligible to receive the latest immunotherapy treatments.
OBI Pharma shares on Saturday fell 1.82 percent to NT$594 in Taipei trading. As a result, many oncologists recommend more aggressive therapeutic regimens for these patients such as extending anti-estrogen therapy for five additional years after completion of the first five years. “This looked at women with advanced ovarian cancer, all of whom received primary chemotherapy before surgery, and in that group of women, we have not known what the best strategy is”.
Promising responses observed in four cancer types, including carrier-specific molecular alterations, have already helped widen the cohort of patients participating in this clinical trial, the researchers said.
“While prior research has suggested that administering immune therapy to patients with autoimmune disease may be feasible, doing so carries the risk of making their disease worse, and requires careful monitoring”, said Dr. David Gerber, who co-directs UTSW’s Experimental Therapeutics Program.
“A biomarker-based approach was the most significant independent predictor of improved outcomes in Phase I studies”.
It is far from clear what changes inside an obese body could be leading to cancer recurrence, but there are theories around levels of the hormone insulin or inflammation, both of which are altered with weight gain.
However, he said women needed to weigh up the benefits compared with the risk of side-effects, which include hot flushes and sweats, nausea, low libido and nausea. “Every partnership and investment in research gets us closer to our vision that by 2050 no women will die of breast cancer”. In terms of recurrence of the original cancer most of which occurred in bones, livers and other places outside the breast there was a smaller difference between the groups, 5.7 percent for the letrozole group versus 7.1 percent for the control group.
The results were determined by studying 23,000 high-risk, 30 to 80-year-old white women.
Dr Ligibel added: “I think it would be premature to say we know these things make a difference and that’s why studies are important”. The aromatase inhibitor used in this study was letrozole, which is sold as Femara by Novartis but is also available as a generic.
“Our study also demonstrates that statins could be a valuable addition to breast cancer treatment, and that this warrants investigation in clinical trials”.
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Samia al Qadhi, Chief Executive at Breast Cancer Care, said: “For many women with breast cancer, fear of the disease returning is one of the biggest issues they face after treatment”.
