New treatment improves long-term outlook for breast cancer...( fter their original diagnosis says Pa...),Health

fter their original diagnosis," says Paul Goss, M.D., of Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto. "For years, we have thought that we had reached the limit of what we could do to reduce the risk of recurrence with five years of tamoxifen. Our study ushers in a new era of hope by cutting these ongoing recurrences and deaths from breast cancer after tamoxifen by almost one half." Goss, a leading expert in novel hormone therapies for the treatment and prevention of breast cancer, conceived and chaired the international trial with letrozole.

A form of hormone therapy for the treatment of breast cancer, letrozole works by limiting the ability of an enzyme called aromatase to produce estrogen, a major growth stimulant in many breast cancers.

Mayo Clinic medical oncologist James Ingle, M.D., says, "Based on our findings, all post-menopausal women with hormone-receptor positive tumours completing about five years of tamoxifen should discuss taking letrozole with their doctors to reduce their risk of breast cancer recurrence." Ingle, from Rochester, Minn., led the research study in the United States.

With Canadian Cancer Society funding, the clinical trial was coordinated by the National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group at Queen's University, in partnership with the U.S. National Cancer Institute and its Clinical Trials Cooperative Groups. Novartis, which manufactures letrozole, also known as Femara®, provided the drug for the trial.

Women participated in the study for an average of 2.4 years and for as long as five years. The study found that women taking letrozole had a reduction in the number of recurrences of cancer in their previously affected breast, a reduction in the number of new cancers in their opposite breast, and a reduction in the spread of the cancer outside their breast.

The side effects of letrozole, a pill which is taken once a day, are very similar to those experienced by women undergoing men
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Contact: NCI Press Officers
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NIH/National Cancer Institute
9-Oct-2003

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