Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Ixempra Research Offers Hope for Triple Negative Breast Cancer

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company presented research at the 2008 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) last December that offers some encouragement for women with triple negative breast cancer.  The company studied Ixempra  (ixabepilone) plus capecitabine compared to capectabine alone in clinical trials

• Of 443 patients with triple negative breast cancer, Ixempra plus capecitabine is the first combination regimen to demonstrate statistically significant progression-free-survival compared to capecitabine  alone.

• Triple negative patients who received Ixempra and capecitabine had an overall response rate of 31 percent compared to 15 percent for patients who received capecitabine alone . The progression-free survival of the combination group was a median of 4.2 months compared to a median of 1.7 months for the capecitabine-treated group.

An article in Medical News Today quotes one of the researchers:

"Patients with advanced, triple negative breast cancer have limited treatment options and a poor prognosis," said Hope S. Rugo, M.D., Clinical Professor of Medicine and Director, Breast Oncology Clinical Trials Program, University of California San Francisco Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. "For this reason, it is important to explore the potential of other current and developmental therapies to discover more and effective treatment options for patients with this specific type of breast cancer."

 


No comments: