A breast cancer clinical trial conducted in Australia and New Zealand gives hope to younger women with breast cancer who are keen to preserve their fertility during cancer treatment.
The results of the Prevention of Early Menopause Study (POEMS) have recently been presented at the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference in Chicago, USA.
The study examines the use of a drug called goserelin (also known as Zoladex®), which was given with standard chemotherapy medicines to a proportion of the 256 women aged 18 to 49 who participated in the trial in New Zealand, Australia and the USA.
Chemotherapy aims to destroy any remaining breast cancer cells that may be left after surgery, but it also destroys healthy cells, including those in the ovaries. This can lead to side effects such as early menopause resulting in infertility, osteoporosis and heart disease.
The POEMS trial tested the use of the drug, goserelin, to see whether it helped a woman’s ovaries to recover after chemotherapy while not interfering with the treatment itself. Goserelin disrupts the body’s hormonal feedback systems and results in reduced oestrogen production that puts a women into reversible menopause.
The study found that the women who received goserelin were less likely to be in menopause two years after their cancer treatment (8 per cent compared with 22 per cent) and were twice as likely to have a normal pregnancy after their cancer treatment.
The Australasian and European Study Chair of the POEMS trial, Professor Kelly-Anne Phillips, says the results are a major step forward in reducing side effects of chemotherapy for premenopausal women with breast cancer.
“These results are fantastic for young women with breast cancer who require treatment with chemotherapy and want to have children. I have seen firsthand how young women with breast cancer have been able to go on to have healthy, happy babies following their cancer treatment, which is a wonderful result.”
BCAC chair, Libby Burgess, agrees these trial results offer a major boost for young women with breast cancer.
“One in four women with breast cancer is pre-menopausal and many young women will want to go on and have children. Treatments to help preserve fertility are really important for these women.
“It’s exciting to see this kind of research coming out of Australia and New Zealand. The POEMS trial clearly demonstrates the importance of clinical trials and their impact on future treatment options,” she says.
The ANZBCTG is an Australasian organisation dedicated entirely to breast cancer research. It conducts a national clinical trials research program for the treatment, prevention and cure of breast cancer. The research program involves multicentre clinical trials and collaboration with 84 institutions and over 700 researchers throughout Australia and New Zealand and many more globally. More than 14,000 women have participated in ANZBCTG breast cancer clinical trials.
