New drug ’shrinks breast cancer’
A new breast cancer drug has been found to shrink tumours before surgery.
Lapatinib is currently licensed in the US for advanced breast cancer but not yet in the EU and works by inhibiting the action of an enzyme that promotes tumour growth.
At the European Breast Cancer Conference in Berlin, Angel Rodriguez, of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, outlined how lapatinib was given to 45 women for six weeks before they underwent surgery.
Consequently, the tumours were reduced by an average of more than 60 per cent, while the drug also cut the number of breast cancer stem cells.
Dr Rodriguez said this was highly significant as this type of cell had proved resistant to other drugs administered before surgery.
"This is an exciting finding and we will be starting further studies on stem cells in order to confirm it. This finding should also apply to other types of cancers, and research of tumour-initiating stem cells in other cancers is ongoing," he said.
The Insurance Helpline specialises in obtaining cover for people living with cancer.
Leave a Reply