New clinical trial for TNBC - Wanted to share what I heard - Sounds very promising!!!

cindycflynn

I heard about this on the news this morning, and just found an article with a little more information I wanted to share with any of you dealing with TNBC:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8025202/New-drug-could-tackle-hard-to-treat-form-of-breast-cancer.html

A new drug could be the first effective targeted treatment against Triple Negative Breast Cancer, which affects one in seven sufferers of the disease.

The drug, known as BSI-201, could help tackle the hard-to-treat form of breast cancer.

Patients with this type of cancer do not respond to the three main drugs used to treat breast cancer and so must rely upon chemotherapy, which can have harmful side effects.

While the three other major forms of breast cancer can be treated with either hormone therapy such as tamoxifen or the drug Herceptin, triple negative cancer cells are not vulnerable to these medications.

Laboratory studies and early trials of the drug, which is produced by drug firm Sanofi Aventis, have shown it appears to be effective at combating this form of cancer when used with other chemotherapy drugs.

A major clinical trial is now under way in the United States to test how effective the drug is.

But cancer experts claim the drug is showing great promise and could be the next so called "wonder drug" against breast cancer.

One leading oncologist said: "This is one of the most exciting potential treatments we have had for a long time, but we need to carry out large clinical trials before we know how effective it will be."

Women suffering from triple negative breast cancer have faults in two genes known as BRCA1 and BRCA2, which are important for repairing DNA in cells, which is important for keeping cells healthy.

Scientists have found that cells with these faults are particularly sensitive to a type of potential breast cancer treatments known as poly-ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors.

BSI-201 is the most developed of these drugs and it causes the cancerous cells with these faulty genes to become unstable and so die.

Phase 2 trials in he USA have shown that when used in conjunction with traditional non-targeted chemotherapy drugs, BSI helped to reduce tumours.

They found 62 per cent of patients given the drug along with chemotherapy treatments had clinical benefits compared to 21 per cent who received chemotherapy alone.

The combined treatment also increased overall survival from 5.7 months to 9.2 months when compared to the chemotherapy only patients.

Dr Sarah Rawlings, Head of Policy and Information at Breakthrough Breast Cancer said: "We now hope to see if PARP inhibitors could become an option for women whose breast cancer is caused by this genetic fault."

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in Britain.

Most of the recent major advances in treatment for it have targeted the types of the disease which are linked to two hormones, and to a kind of protein, called HER-2.

One of the greatest breakthroughs was the development of Herceptin, which specifically targeted HER2-positive cancers, which are particularly aggressive.

About one quarter of the breast cases diagnosed in Britain each year are responsive to the drug, which was finally approved for widespread use by the NHS in 2006, following furious battles when women were denied the treatment.

Research has found that when Herceptin was combined with chemotherapy, the breast tumour was completely eliminated in 55 per cent of patients, compared with 19 per cent of those patients given only chemotherapy.

Before that, the development of the oestrogen-blocking drug tamoxifen was one of the most significant breakthroughs in breast cancer.

The drug, which has been used for more than 20 years, has saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of women worldwide.

However, last year a study found that the drug significantly increased the chances of developing a rare, but more aggressive type of cancer, in the tumour-free breast.

The study of more than 1,000 breast cancer survivors treated with drugs like tamoxifen found it reduced the risk of the disease returning by 60 per cent. However, the chance of later being diagnosed with a much rarer form of breast cancer increased dramatically. One in three of the women in the study were later diagnosed with tumours which do not respond to hormone treatment. However, researchers said the benefit of the treatment in attacking the first cancer outweighed later risks.

Angie2U

Thanks Cindy! This is
Thanks Cindy! This is interesting! However, the report on tamox is scary. That it increases your chance of getting bc in your healthy breast by a lot? Or, am I not reading this article right?

Hugs, Angie

mjfromtx

Angie2U said:

Thanks Cindy! This is
Thanks Cindy! This is interesting! However, the report on tamox is scary. That it increases your chance of getting bc in your healthy breast by a lot? Or, am I not reading this article right?

Hugs, Angie

TNBC stage four here
Thank you for the article. For those of us with TNBC stage four there are limited options. I wonder if this could work with BRCA 1 and 2 negative as well as the BRCA positive? I am TNBC and negative for the gene mutations. MJ

carkris

mjfromtx said:

TNBC stage four here
Thank you for the article. For those of us with TNBC stage four there are limited options. I wonder if this could work with BRCA 1 and 2 negative as well as the BRCA positive? I am TNBC and negative for the gene mutations. MJ

I asked about this, and was
I asked about this, and was told that tamoxifen just helps prevent estrogen positive cancers, so you r other breast is still vulnerable to estrogen neg cancers. This sounds very promising, and is very exciting.

webbwife50

TNBC survivor
Thanks Cindy for such relevent information! I have been cancer free for just under a year now and try to stay informed without being obsessed. I'll be asking my oncologist about it this month. thanks again...alison

Skeezie

webbwife50 said:

TNBC survivor
Thanks Cindy for such relevent information! I have been cancer free for just under a year now and try to stay informed without being obsessed. I'll be asking my oncologist about it this month. thanks again...alison

I read about PARP last year after I was dx and last year
they were saying this was being tested in Stage IV & recurrence, is this new info? Are they now looking at this for all stages? Fingers crossed huh?

marines911

WIFE WAS IN PHASE 3 CLINICAL TRIAL
My wife was in the phase 3 clinical trial with the Gemzar and Carbo along with the PARP inhibitor. She got mixed results and the oncologist that we are with now believes that she was not on it long enough to determine that it was a failure. This type of chemo is almost ready to hit the streets sometime in the summer of next year, they are just compiling the results from the clinical study that was just completed. Our oncologist just told us today while my wife was getting her labs done.

Hopefully we will hear something in the next two weeks on the phase 2 trial at UCLA.

Thanks for the information.

SDickerson

Thanks
I am currently in this trial. I was scheduled to have my second tx tomorrow, but my blood count is to low. Now tx has been pushed back one week. My onc has good things to say about this study. In order to qualify for the study you have to have had one failed tx. I was initially on AC and the tumor grew. So I had surgery and the tumor removed, with clear margins, now chemo.

Everything I have read and been told is very positive about the study.

God Bless!!

Moopy23

Many Thanks
Thanks Cyndy and all who posted their experience and information. Marine911, you and your dear wife are in my prayers.