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Fulvestrant Appears Comparable to Anastrozole Therapies for Treatment of Hormone Receptor--Positive Metastatic Breast Cancer: Presented at ASBD

By Peggy Peck

BOSTON, MA -- April 29, 2004 -- Fulvestrant appears to be comparable to anastrozole for time to tumor progression and overall survival, but it may be better tolerated in terms of joint disorders in patients with advanced breast cancer, suggest the results of a prospective combined survival analysis of two multicenter trials.

The findings were reported in a poster presented here on April 24^th at the American Society of Breast Disease (ASBD) 28^th Annual Symposium.

Lead author, Steven E Come, MD, associate professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, reported that with its "unique mechanism of action and lack of cross-resistance, fulvestrant is a valuable second-line treatment option for postmenopausal women following disease progression or recurrence on tamoxifen."

Barry Lambersky, MD, clinical associate professor, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, said in a telephone interview that the study is "a further update of data presented late last year but not yet published. These two trials confirm the equivalency of these two drugs and the take home message here for patients and physicians is that there is a reasonable choice between two drugs -- one a pill and the other an IM injection."

The two studies enrolled a total of 428 patients who were randomized to fulvestrant 250 mg once monthly IM injection and 423 patients to anastrozole 1 mg daily. Ninety-six percent of the fulvestrant patients and 97% of patients in the anastrozole group previously received tamoxifen.

The median survival was 27.4 months in the fulvestrant group and 27.7 months in the anastrozole group. At 27 months of follow-up, 74.5% of fulvestrant patients and 76.1% of anastrozole patients had died.

AstraZeneca LP, Wilmington, Delaware, funded the study.


[Presentation title: "A Prospective Combined Survival Analysis of Two Multicenter Trials of Fulvestrant (Faslodex) Versus Anastrozole (Arimidex) for the Treatment of Advanced Breast Cancer." Poster #20]

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