Novartis’ Kidney Cancer Drug may be Effective in Breast Cancer Patients as Well

In what is being hailed as a major breakthrough in the fight against breast cancer, a recent study has shown that Novartis’ kidney cancer drug, Afinitor was found to successfully increase the amount of time that post-menopausal women lived without their disease getting worse. Researchers, led by Jose Baselga of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, found that combining Afinitor with Pfizer’s Aromasin increased the progression free survival time to seven months, compared to just 2.8 months when just Aromasin was used.

Baselga revealed that there were no new side effects other than those which had been found in trials with Afinitor and added that the study had been stopped early since the primary goal of the study had been achieved earlier than expected.

“These results are impressive and, potentially, could represent a new therapeutic option. This is a highly significant improvement in the time to disease progression. It's quite remarkable”, Baselga said.

Novartis revealed that it will now be applying for Afinitor to be used in treating breast cancer with the company’s CEO Joe Jimenez stating that it could generate additional sales of more than $1 billion annually.



Source-Medindia