The FDA on Wednesday approved a new drug for one type of breast cancer, a development one scientist says is the first real advancement in 20 years.
The drug, called abemaciclib – brand name Verzenio – is now approved for patients with the HR+, HER2-early breast cancer, which makes up 70% of all breast cancers.
The drug was already approved for advanced, or metastatic, breast cancer.
“This is the first time in more than 20 years that we have seen an advance in the adjuvant treatment of this form of breast cancer,” lead investigator Stephen Johnston, MD, from the Royal Marsden Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London said at a recent meeting of the European Society of Medical Oncology..
The new drug will “change practice,” said Giuseppe Curigliano, MD, head of the Division of Early Drug Development at the European Institute of Oncology, in Milan, Italy.
Source: Medscape Medical News