Reprieve comes for breast cancer patients

There are indications that breast cancer patients will soon have big relief as a new drug that helps slow the spread of an incurable type of breast cancer has been approved for use in Britain’s state-run National Health Service.

Officials of the Agency which made this public this Friday said Scientists described the approval of capivasertib by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) as a “landmark moment”.

According to findings, more than 1,000 women with the HR-positive HER2-negative type of the disease could benefit from taking the twice-daily pill every year.

Reports say the drug, also known as Truqap and produced by British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, helps slow or stop the progression of the cancer, an indication that it could help some patients live longer.

According to NICE’s director of medicines evaluation, Helen Knight, “People with advanced breast cancer would value treatments like capivasertib that can be given when limited options exist and because it may delay the need for chemotherapy and its associated side-effects.

“This announcement is a triumph that will improve treatment for these patients with the most common type of advanced breast cancer.

“Around half of patients with this kind of breast cancer have mutations in one or more of the genes, and for these patients capivasertib can halt disease progression.”

He pointed out that the pill works by blocking the action of an abnormal protein that tells cancer cells to multiply.

Results from a clinical trial found that capivasertib plus the hormone therapy fulvestrant increased the time before the cancer worsened by around 4.2 months compared with a placebo and fulvestrant.

Meanwhile, the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London has welcomed the move, which follows decades of research by its scientists.