Stronger role for a breast cancer drug
Lapatinib shows utility for patients with a particularly troublesome form of the cancer
By Nathan Seppa
SAN ANTONIO — A recently approved breast cancer drug called lapatinib may serve as a valuable partner for letrozole, a standard frontline drug for the disease, according to a study of patients whose cancer has spread.
Patients with metastatic breast cancer are destined to return to chemotherapy, and this drug combination seems to significantly delay that day for patients who have a certain form of the disease, says medical oncologist Stephen Johnston of the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust in London.
He presented the findings December 11 at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
The trial included 1,286 post-menopausal women who had hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. In such women, the hormone estrogen — and less commonly progesterone — binds to receptor proteins in breast cells and instigates malignant growth. Most breast cancers are estrogen-receptor positive. For that reason, standard frontline drugs such as tamoxifen and letrozole have proved extremely valuable, since both drugs interfere with estrogen’s proliferative effects.