Breast cancer treatment: Drug Kisqali approval expanded for earlier stage disease
The FDA expanded the approval of Kisqali, a drug for metastatic breast cancer, to treat patients with earlier stage cancer, Novartis said.
The Food and Drug Administration expanded the approval of Kisqali, a drug for metastatic breast cancer, to also treat patients with earlier stages of the disease, drugmaker Novartis said Tuesday.
The approval means that tens of thousands of women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer will have access to a medication that can help prevent their cancer from coming back.
“Depending on your risks and everything, up to 30% of breast cancers can come back,” said Dr. Eleonora Teplinsky, head of breast and gynecologic medical oncology at Valley Health System in New Jersey. “If it comes back as stage four, then while we have treatment, it’s not curable. People die from that cancer.”
In a phase 3 clinical trial from the drugmaker Novartis, Kisqali reduced the risk of a patient’s breast cancer coming back by 25% after three years when given in addition to standard treatments, which can include chemotherapy, surgery and radiation followed by hormone therapy.
After four years, Kisqali reduced the risk by 28.5%, according to an updated analysis presented Monday at the European Society for Medical Oncology conference in Barcelona.
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