In a new study, researchers found that a drug called ribociclib combined with common hormone therapy could help women with common breast cancer live longer.
Ribociclib works by blocking the activity of proteins that promote cell division and cancer growth.
The research was led by UCLA scientists.
Previous research has shown that advanced breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in women 20 to 59, and the vast majority of breast cancer is hormone-receptor positive.
From 1976 to 2009, the incidence of advanced breast cancer among U.S. women under 40 increased an average of about 2% per year, a larger increase than for any other age group.
Hormone therapy is an essential part of treatment for hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer, a form of the disease in which a woman’s own hormones promote cancer growth.
The therapy works by blocking or lowering the levels of estrogen production so cancer cells can’t use them to grow and spread.
However, the therapy eventually stops working in some women with breast cancer.
In the study, the team examined 672 women aged 25 to 59 when the study began who had advanced hormone-receptor positive/HER2- breast cancer.
None of the women in the study had been previously treated for metastatic cancer. Half of the subjects were given hormone therapy and a placebo. The other half received hormone therapy in addition to ribociclib.
The team found that 70% of the women who took the combination therapy were alive after 42 months, compared to 46% for women who were treated with the hormone therapy alone.
In women who received the combination therapy, breast cancer did not progress for an average of 23.8 months.
This is much longer than 13 months in women who received endocrine therapy alone.
The team hopes their work could help the drug ribociclib gets approved by the FDA to treat metastatic breast cancer.
This is the first to show a big benefit in survival for women with metastatic hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer.
The lead author of the study is Dr. Sara Hurvitz, director of the Breast Cancer Clinical Research Program.
The study is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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