Fulvestrant breast cancer drug shows better survival than current standard, study finds

The advanced breast cancer hormone therapy 'fulvestrant' works better than the current standard drug treatment and reduces the risk of progression by 20%, according to a large clinical trial led by The University of Nottingham and Baylor College of Medicine in the US. Key data presented on Saturday 8 October 2016 at the European Society for Medical Oncology showed that the fulvestrant drug Faslodex demonstrated better survival using a 500mg dose compared to the anastrozoledrug Arimidex in the first-line treatment of postmenopausal women with locally-advanced or metastatic breast cancer. The FALCON trial was a Phase III, randomised, double-blind, multicentre clinical trial. It was carried out after positive results from the Phase II FIRST trial, which showed an average overall survival nearly six months longer with fulvestrant compared to anastrozole. The trial enrolled 462 patients and showed that the average progression-free survival (PFS) was 2.8 months longer with fulvestrant than anastrozole. The average PFS was 16.6 months in the fulvestrant arm compared with 13.8 months in the anastrozole arm of the study. Aromatase inhibitors, such as anastrozole, are the current standard of care in 1st line treatment for postmenopausal women with hormone-receptor positive advanced breast cancer.