Adding Kisqali to hormonal therapy to early stage BC after surgery reduces recurrence risk.
People who took the targeted therapy Kisqali (chemical name: ribociclib) plus an aromatase inhibitor after surgery to remove hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative, early-stage breast cancer had better invasive disease-free survival than people who took only an aromatase inhibitor, according to results from the NATALEE trial. There's recently been a study done on adding Kisqali to hormonal therapy after surgery reduces recurrence risk - up til now, it has also been used in combination with the hormonal therapy Faslodex (chemical name: fulvestrant) to treat advanced-stage, hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer that hasn’t been treated with hormonal therapy yet, or has grown while being treated with a different hormonal therapy, in post-menopausal women. It is reputed to have less nutrapenia than some types of chemo - but may induce diarrhoea The NATALEE trial included 5,101 women and men diagnosed with early-stage, hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer over 3 years. My initial thoughts are that 3 years isn't 'long enough' to really give accurate long term results on reducing recurrence - but any trial that helps reduce recurrence has to be better than no trials! Sometimes just combining a totally different drug to an existing regime can help big time. Some years ago, they added Itraconazole (an anti fungal treatment for nails) to Prostate Cancer treatment & it (and other anti fungal treatments) is reducing tumour growth and side effects in Prostate Cancer patients .... so thinking outside the box, helps! There is a podcast to listen to here, as well as more information on the treatment in the link below - it could be something to raise with your Onc, if or when it becomes available on PBS for patients in Australia ...... https://www.breastcancer.org/research-news/kisqali-reduces-recurrence-risk?
CDK4/6 inhibitors PBS
Hi, Can someone share their experience or knowledge of who can access CDK4/6 inhibitors? I’m trying to establish what my situation would be in the current PBS environment if I became stage 4. I am on an AI for endocrine therapy. The wording in the PBS documents is unclear it says exclusion criteria - treated with AI for more than 28 days. Is this for mets though or all stage cancers? Given that AI is now preferred choice of endocrine therapy for hormone positive cancer, does this mean if those of us on AI for early stage would not be able to use palbo, ribo or abemociclib if we progressed to stage 4 under PBS ruling and would need to self fund? Thanks everyone.