Breast cancer: combining hormone therapy with a targeted medication increases patients’ survival rate

The trial, which was conducted by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), followed 726 menopausal women with hormone-receptor positive/HER2- breast cancer advanced breast cancer, a form of cancer which is often treated with endocrine (hormone) therapy, which curbs hormones’ stimulating effect on cancer cells.

The study’s subjects were split into several groups: some were administered a therapeutic protocol combining hormone therapy by way of antiœstrogenic fulvestrant with ribociclib, a medication that hinders the process that causes cancer cells to grow. Other were treated with fulvestrant.

Results showed 28% reduction in the risk of death in the combined therapy group. After 42 months, the estimated survival rate was over 58% for that same group versus 46% for the women who were treated with hormone therapy exclusively.

“[W]e found there’s a significant difference when you use the combination of ribociclib with hormone therapy as the first line of therapy,” said study lead Dr. Dennis Slamon, chair of hematology/oncology and director of Clinical/Translational Research at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. “There is absolutely no reason to wait to give women this treatment. This should be the new standard.”