Breakthrough breast cancer treatment could help 1,000 women a year

Telegraph

a day ago

A new triple-drug treatment for aggressive advanced breast cancer can cut deaths by a third, a major trial has found.
The international research used liquid biopsies – described as the 'golden key' to unlocking precision medicines – that identified suitable patients.
All were suffering from one of the most common forms of breast cancer, which accounts for seven in 10 cases, and had a common mutation which makes it more deadly and aggressive.
The three-drug therapy comprises two targeted drugs – palbociclib, a type of cancer growth blocker, and a new drug called inavolisib, which blocks the activity of the PI3K protein – as well as the hormone therapy fulvestrant.
Until now, treatment options for such patients have been limited.
The trial involving the Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust enrolled 325 patients from 28 countries, including the UK. In all cases, cancer had spread or returned after hormone therapy and for those who had not yet received systemic treatment for metastatic disease.
Of the total, 161 were given the three-drug combination. The placebo group, which included 164 patients, was given a dummy pill plus palbociclib and fulvestrant.
The study found the median overall survival in the inavolisib group was 34 months, compared with 27 months in the placebo group.
The therapy was far more likely to result in significant shrinkage of tumours. In total, 62.7 per cent of patients in the inavolisib group saw their tumours shrink by more than 30 per cent, compared with 28 per cent in the placebo group. The randomised, double blind trial also showed that the new combination delayed the progression of the disease by 17.2 months, on average, compared with 7.3 months in the control group.
Women taking inavolisib were able to delay subsequent chemotherapy treatment by almost two years longer than the patients in the control group.
Around 55,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK every year, and 11,500 will die from the disease.
The study involved women with one of the most common types of disease, who had a mutation which is more aggressive and deadly.
Experts said around 1,000 women a year could be helped by the drug combination.
The study, funded by pharmaceutical company Roche, which manufactures inavolisib, was presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago and simultaneously published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Lead author Nick Turner, professor of molecular oncology at the Institute of Cancer Research and consultant medical oncologist at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said the therapy 'not only helped patients live longer, but it more than doubled the time before their cancer progressed or worsened.
'It also gave them more time before needing subsequent chemotherapy, which we know is something that patients really fear and want to delay for as long as possible,' he said.
The oncologist said he hoped the triple therapy would become the standard of care for women who can benefit.
Previous trial results led the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to grant 'breakthrough therapy' designation for inavolisib in May 2024 with costs of around $23,000 (£17,000) monthly.
It has yet to be licensed in the UK.
Professor Kristian Helin, chief executive of the Institute of Cancer Research, London, said: 'This research demonstrates how this triple combination approach, effectively shuts down cancer's escape routes, giving people with metastatic breast cancer the opportunity to live well for longer.'
Dr Nisharnthi Duggan, research information manager at Cancer Research UK, said: 'These results are really positive news for people living with a type of hard-to-treat breast cancer. The trial showed that adding inavolisib to targeted treatment plans improved survival. On top of this, it also delayed the progression of people's cancer and the need for chemotherapy, which could improve quality of life.
'We hope that more research like this will help to give people kinder cancer treatment options, and more time with their loved ones.'