Combining two breast cancer drugs that have traditionally been given as single treatments may prolong the life of patients, a new report from researchers at Loyola University Medical Center near Chicago says.
Lead researcher Dr. Kathy Albain and her team followed 707 post-menopausal women who were diagnosed with hormone-receptor positive metastatic breast cancer. They administered some women with doses of either anastrozole or fulvestrant and gave others both drug.
They found women who received just one of the treatments survived for a total of 41.3 months while those receiving both lived for 47.7 months.
"This study is the first to show that combination hormonal therapy alone without chemotherapy improves survival in advanced breast cancer. This most likely will change the standard of care for how we treat these patients," Albain said.
The data appears in the current edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com