NEW BREAKTHROUGH BREAST CANCER DRUG

It’s not often an FDA drug trial is stopped early because the drug is found to be so effective it would be unethical to wait any longer to get it out there! Pfizer’s new drug, Ibrance, is one such drug, and it’s an amazing new weapon against breast cancer.

The most common kind of breast cancer occurs in postmenopausal women and is estrogen receptor positive (ER+) and HER2–negative (HER2-). These kinds of breast cancer have typically been treated with drugs that target these hormone receptor pathways, like tamoxifen.

But Pfizer has developed a novel drug that acts differently. Ibrance (palbociclib) targets certain proteins in cancer cells and prevents the cells from dividing. If they cannot divide, cancer cells cannot metastasize.

In the study of 165 women with advanced breast cancer, one group was given Ibrance in addition to a standard anti-estrogen drug; another group received the anti-estrogen drug alone. The women who received Ibrance combined with the typical anti-estrogen drug had a significantly higher progression-free survival rate.

Just two months ago, Ibrance received accelerated approval by the U.S. FDA to go into late stage trials for women with advanced breast cancer. In the most recent study, the drug has shown such positive results that investigators found no reason to continue with this stage. According to one survivor, the effects of Ibrance are “fast, effective, and earth shattering.”

Ibrance is now going to have a speedy FDA approval as it has received “breakthrough therapy” status by the FDA. Many women with advanced breast cancer can now enjoy longer progression-free survival and fewer symptoms from metastasis. This is an amazing discovery in a disease that affects someone close to all of us in one way or another.