EFN

According to research unveiled Sunday, new therapies developed following very promising clinical trials seem to effectively target breast cancer as well as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

One study involved women with triple negative breast cancer, which means the tumors lack receptors for estrogen, progesterone and HER2, and involved a drug known as BSI-201, that’s being developed by a unit of Sanofi Aventis SA (SNY).

A second study examined breast cancer patients with BRCA gene mutations which also makes that type of cancer hard to treat and involved a drug known as olaparib, which is being developed by AstraZeneca PLC (AZN). The studies were presented Sunday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting.

The compounds, called PARP inhibitors, work by blockading the ability of cells damaged by chemotherapy or through genetic mutations to fix themselves, causing tumor cells to die as a result.

The experimental drug added by Paris-based Sanofi when it bought BiPar Sciences Inc. of San Francisco extended survival in women with an aggressive form of breast cancer by 3.5 months, to 9.2 months, when added to chemotherapy in a study. The findings, were called “a huge bombshell” by Powel Brown, director at the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.

Remarking on the results, the trial’s chief investigator Dr Helena Earl said: “Having chemotherapy before surgery is important for women who have larger tumours, which frequently means they have a more aggressive form of the disease.

Many women who test positive for the mutations have their breasts removed as a precaution, as they have an 80 per cent risk of developing breast cancer in their lifetime.