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New guidelines in the UK recommend that healthy post-menopausal women with a familial risk of developing breast cancer be prescribed the medicine anastrazole in a bid to help ward off the disease.
The recommendation comes from the UK’s drug regulator, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which has just updated its familial breast cancer guidelines.
The Institute already recommends that healthy pre-menopausal women with the BRCA gene mutations be prescribed the hormone therapy, tamoxifen, for at least five years.
Eating foods rich in isoflavones, which are found in soy products, could help to reduce the death rate in women with certain types of breast cancer.
A new study, published in the journal Cancer, found that isoflavones are associated with lower death rates in women with hormone-receptor-negative breast cancer and those who are not receiving endocrine therapy.
Isoflavones are oestrogen-like compounds found in certain foods, mainly soy products such as tofu, soy milk, miso and edamame beans.
New results from a major clinical trial testing the breakthrough breast cancer drug, Perjeta, show that it helped women with early HER-2 Positive breast cancer live longer.
Headline results from the Phase III APHINITY trial have just been released by the pharmaceutical company Roche.
They show that women with HER-2 Positive early breast cancer who were given Perjeta plus Herceptin and chemotherapy after surgery to remove the tumour experienced a “statistically significant reduction” in the risk of the disease recurring or death, compared with those who received Herceptin and chemotherapy alone.
The researchers have not yet released the full results of the trial and plan to do so at the upcoming American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in June.
Two of the country’s major breast cancer charities have joined forces to plead for the 160 women denied public access to the breakthrough breast cancer drug, Perjeta.
The Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition (BCAC) and the NZ Breast Cancer Foundation (NZBCF) are calling on Pharmac to extend funding for Perjeta to women already being treated with Herceptin.
Late last year, Pharmac decided to fund Perjeta, a revolutionary treatment for advanced HER2-positive breast cancer that is used in combination with Herceptin and the chemotherapy drug, docetaxel.
But it ruled that it would only fund Perjeta as a first-line treatment, which means it is only available to those who have not received any other kind of treatment for HER-2 positive breast cancer.
The latest in new and innovative breast cancer treatments and recent developments to empower patients were discussed at the Australia New Zealand Breast Cancer Clinical Trials Group (ANZBCTG) conference in Australia.
Five BCAC committee members attended the conference which focused on the theme Partners for Progress in Breast Cancer Research and Care.
BCAC chairperson, Libby Burgess, says the meeting provided a comprehensive overview of the latest in breast cancer research and new treatment options.
She says screening has contributed to reducing breast cancer mortality, but future advances are predicted to be in smarter, more targeted treatments, with immunotherapy likely to provide exciting options over the next few years.
The Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition (BCAC) is thrilled that New Zealand women with advanced breast cancer will finally be able to get the breakthrough breast cancer drug Perjeta from next year, but is bitterly disappointed that a large number will be denied access to this potentially life-extending medicine.
The Government’s drug funding agency, PHARMAC, said today it would fund pertuzumab or Perjeta for New Zealand women with Her2-Positive advanced breast cancer from January 1, 2017, however it has not considered funding the medicine for women who are already receiving treatment for metastatic breast cancer.
Moana Papa, a long-time committee member of the Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition (BCAC), talks about her secondary breast cancer diagnosis.
A group of Kiwis with secondary breast cancer have made a desperate video plea in support of a campaign for greater access to medicines to give them a better chance at life.
The moving video is part of the Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition’s (BCAC) drive to get thousands to sign an open letter to the Minister of Health calling for an urgent increase in funding for medicines.
BCAC’s chair, Libby Burgess, says the campaign launches on October 13, Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness Day, and highlights the distressing plight of women with secondary breast cancer.
You can find out more about medicines access in New Zealand and new treatments available for breast cancer on the following sites.
Medicines in New Zealand:
More treatment options are needed to extend and improve the lives of New Zealanders with advanced breast cancer.
Different medicines are needed for the different sub-types of breast cancer (hormone receptor positive/negative, HER2 positive/negative, triple negative, etc.), and different patients with the same sub-type may respond differently to a single medicine. On top of this, as breast cancer progresses, different medicines are needed to suppress tumour growth and spread.
