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The Cutting Edge

Targeted Therapy Drug Extends Lives of Women with Aggressive Breast Cancer

Image: Getty, Doctor and Patient

Image: Getty

A study led by UCLA researchers found that adding the targeted therapy drug ribociclib to standard hormone therapy significantly improves overall survival in postmenopausal women with advanced hormone-receptor positive/HER2- breast cancer, one of the most common types of the disease. The findings also show the combination treatment is beneficial at the time of recurrence and should become a first-line option in postmenopausal women with HR+/HER2- advanced breast cancer.

“Many people argue that the first type of treatment women with this type of metastatic cancer should receive is some other form of hormonal therapy and then wait to see if they respond to that treatment,” says Dennis Slamon, MD (FEL ‘82), chair of hematology-oncology and director of clinical and translational research at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. “But we found there’s a significant difference when you use the combination of ribociclib with hormone therapy as the first line of therapy. There is absolutely no reason to wait to give women this treatment. This should be the new standard.”

Dennis J. Slamon, MD

Dennis J. Slamon, MD

Ribociclib is a drug that belongs to a class of inhibitors that works by blocking the activity of proteins called cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 (CDK4/6) enzymes, which promote cell division and cancer growth. The current results build upon data previously reported by Dr. Slamon and colleagues that ultimately helped lead to the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of ribociclib. There are now three CDK4/6 inhibitors that have been approved by the FDA for combination treatment with standard hormone therapies.

The double-blind clinical trial involved 726 postmenopausal women who had advanced hormone-receptor positive/HER2- breast cancer. The trial included women who had not previously received endocrine therapy, as well as women who were in the first-line or second-line setting. The results demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in survival, with a 28 percent reduction in risk of death. At 42 months, the estimated rates of survival were 58 percent for the drug combination treatment and 46 percent for women who were treated with the hormone therapy alone. The median progression-free survival with ribociclib in the first-line setting is the longest reported in a phase III trial in hormone-receptor positive/HER2- breast cancer — 33.6 months as compared to 19.2 months for those in the hormone-therapy-only group.

This is the first demonstration of an overall survival advantage for postmenopausal women and the second study confirming that the drug increases overall survival — something very few trials are able to accomplish. “Increasing overall survival is the hardest endpoint to move,” Dr. Slamon says. “We’re also seeing that the time of progression-free survival is the longest yet reported for any of the drugs in this class. And even when patients are off the drug, the effect seems to be long-lasting in terms of the benefit. It’s important because this means we are helping women live longer and have a better quality of life.”

The team is now evaluating these drugs in women with early-stage breast cancer in an international clinical trial.

— Denise Heady

 

“Overall Survival with Ribociclib Plus Fulvestrant in Advanced Breast Cancer,” The New England Journal of Medicine, December 11, 2019


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Winter 2020

Winter 2020
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IN THIS ISSUE
  • Lessons from Sherm
  • Father’s X Chromosome May Yield Clues to Higher Rates of Autoimmune Disease in Women
  • Researchers Create Accurate Model of Organ Scarring
  • Biomarker Predicts Which Heart-failure Patients at Higher Risk of Death within One-to-three Years
  • Targeted Therapy Drug Extends Lives of Women with Aggressive Breast Cancer
  • Can a “Battery Leak” Trigger the Onset of Type 2 Diabetes?
  • Molecular Changes in Cells of Eye’s Lens Predict Future Cataracts
  • UCLA Addresses Increasing Demand with New Master’s in Genetic Counseling
  • Truth Seeker
  • Sherm
  • Repairing and Reversing Damage Caused by Huntington’s Disease
  • Cells’ Mitochondria Work Much Like Tesla Battery Packs
  • The Who and Friends Rock Private Show for UCLA Health and Teen Cancer America
  • A Confounding Case
  • Body Image Concerns Are Universal
  • “We Do Better with Diversity”
  • Annual UCLA Health System Board Meeting Turns Its Focus to Cardiac Care
  • UCLA Operation Mend Cheered on at New York City Veterans Day Parade
  • A Decade in Review: 7 Exciting Health Care Breakthroughs
  • MRI May Help Doctors Differentiate Causes of Memory Loss
  • On the Road to Health Care Equality
  • Learning To Listen
  • Photo Synthesis
  • Awards & Honors
  • In Memoriam
  • David Geffen Adds $46 Million to Landmark Medical Scholarships Program
  • Nearly 2,000 Guests Attend Party on the Pier for UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital
  • Golden Visionary Ball Raises More than $1 Million for UCLA Neurosurgery
  • Dr. Hans Gritsch Named Inaugural Chair in Kidney Transplantation
  • Nonprofit Heart of the Brain Fuels the Fight against Brain Cancer
  • UCLA Supporters Raise Money for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
  • Dancing for NED Fundraiser Fights Ovarian Cancer
  • Gifts
  • In Memoriam
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