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IPFS News Link • Drugs and Medications

FDA Gives Nod to New Breast Cancer Drug

• http://www.bio-medicine.org, HealthDay News

It's the first time that a drug from this class of medications, called mTOR inhibitors, has been approved for this disease, the FDA said. Afinitor is already used to fight advanced kidney and neuroendocrine tumors, as well as a handful of rarer cancers.

The medicine is only approved for use by postmenopausal women battling an advanced form of estrogen-sensitive tumor known as hormone-receptor positive, HER2-negative breast cancer. Even then, Afinitor should only be used after such patients have already experienced a recurrence or progression of the tumor following prior treatment with Femara (letrozole) or Arimidex (anastrozole), the FDA said.

Adding Afinitor -- which has proven effective for other cancers -- to therapy might help these patients, the agency said. 
 
 "Afinitor is another example of the value of continuing to study drugs in additional types of cancer after their initial approval," Dr. Richard Pazdur, director of the Office of Hematology and Oncology Products in the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in an agency news release.

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