Uncategorized

Anne Li                                                                                                 March 18th, 2017

As many as 1 in 5 women with breast cancer could benefit from a drug used to treat ovarian cancer, according to new estimates. Previous research has focused on women who might benefit from these drugs based on inherited genetic faults causing their breast cancer, around 1 to 5% of cases. But the new estimates suggest that up to 22% of women with breast cancer may benefit from the drugs, called PARP inhibitors, which are only approved for use on the NHS in some women with ovarian cancer. The drugs are being tested in clinical trials for breast cancer. Professor Sir Mike Stratton, director of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute where the research took place, said that this type of analysis could point to “the complete set of cancers that will respond to certain drugs that are already known to be effective in a subset”. 

See original article at: https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-us/cancer-news/news-report/2017-03-13-more-breast-cancer-patients-than-previously-thought-could-benefit-from-existing-targeted-treatment