New pill offers lifeline to 'death sentence' breast cancer patients by adding years to their life expectancy
- Ribociclib is having 'almost unheard of' results in a major new trial
- The daily pill offers years more life and would transform the lives of thousands
- Some riddled with tumours have seen their growths all but disappear
- Bernadette Martinho-Brewer has taken it for four years and called it 'incredible'
A 'magical' drug offers women close to dying from the most common form of breast cancer the prospect of years more life, experts said last night.
Hailing 'almost unheard of' results from a major trial, they said the daily pill could transform the prospect of thousands of women.
After being diagnosed with advanced breast cancer, where tumours have spread to other organs, women typically now live just two or three years longer.
But some women are still alive seven years after being put on the treatment, ribociclib, experts have told The Mail on Sunday.
Ribociclib is having 'almost unheard of' results in a major trial on breast cancer patients in the US
A number who were riddled with tumours throughout their bodies have seen their growths all but disappear.
Results of the trial, unveiled yesterday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference, show a major leap in survival rates among those put on the drug.
Last night, lead researcher Dr Sara Hurvitz, of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center in California, said: 'I have counted on one hand the number of agents [drugs] that have this kind of effect. Such a huge survival advantage is almost unheard of.'
And Professor Gabriel Hortobagyi of the University of Texas, who spearheaded the earliest trials of ribociclib, said: 'If you go back 30 years, the average survival of a woman with metastatic breast cancer about 18 months.
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'But I have patients who have been on ribociclib and hormone medication for seven years, and they continue to do well.'
The survival benefits could last even longer, he anticipated. 'We won't know for another five, ten years, what the ceiling is.'
Professor Peter Harper, founder of Harley Street's Leaders In Oncology Care, said: 'When you see these responses, they're magical.'
Among those to have benefited is 53-year-old Bernadette Martinho-Brewer from Tulare, California.
'It's absolutely incredible,' said the teacher and mother-of-one, who has been taking ribociclib for almost four years. 'I just hope this drug can help other women too.'
Bernadette Martinho-Brewer from Tulare, California, pictured with her daughter, has benefited from the 'magical' treatment
She was first diagnosed with cancer in her left breast in 2012 which spread. She said: 'I was angry, more than anything – my daughter was barely in her teens. I had to face the fact that I might not make it.
'Now, I just feel so lucky – almost four years later, and I'm working and living life as normal.'
The trial followed 672 women with HER2-negative breast cancer, the most common form of the disease.
It showed 70 per cent of women given ribociclib together with other anti-cancer drugs were still alive after three-and-a-half years.
That compared to just 46 per cent of those given a placebo dummy pill instead of ribociclib.
The new medicine proved so successful the study was stopped early as it was considered unethical not to offer it all the patients.
The trial was sponsored by pharmaceutical firm Novartis, which has developed ribociclib under the name Kisqali. At present, some women with HER2-negative breast cancer can get ribociclib on the NHS, which costs about £35,000 a year.
