A drug doubles survival from the most common breast cancer

The abemaciclib molecule attacks hormone-dependent tumors, which represent 70% of the total. It has been developed by Spanish researchers and represents a step towards making the disease chronic.

"I have been dedicated to hormone-dependent breast cancer for 25 years, which depends on hormones, especially estrogen, and this is one of the greatest joys I have had," says Meritxell Bellet, oncologist at the Vall Breast Cancer Unit. d'Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO). She is referring to Verzenios (developed from the molecule abemaciclib), the new oral drug for locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer that doubles the survival of patients previously treated with hormonal treatments. Verzenios has also been developed by Spanish researchers.

"The results of clinical trials with abemaciclib have shown that, with it, progression survival, that is, the time that passes until the tumor grows or advances, goes from 14,8 months to 28,2 months," he says. María José Lallena, researcher and director of the R&D Biology center at Lilly Spain, the pharmaceutical company that has registered the product in this country. Hormone-dependent breast cancer is one of the most difficult to treat.

Abemaciclib is the third inhibitor of the enzymes responsible for regulating the cell cycle approved in the European Union (EU), after the approval of other drugs from the same family such as palbociclib and ribociclib. It is taken twice a day orally, without a break. "In HER2-positive breast cancer, which has the overexpressed HER2 protein, there has always been much more research, since this protein can be attacked in a very targeted way and with little toxicity. But in hormone-dependent breast cancer, which represents 70% of all breast tumors, it is the first time that I have seen a radical change: never before the arrival of these inhibitors had we seen anything that increased the control of the disease and even the survival of patients - when the drug is applied in the initial phases of metastatic disease-", highlights Bellet.

According to her, this treatment is a step towards the "chronification" of breast cancer, although survival in this disease "continues to be threatened." "Having chronic diabetes is not the same as having chronic breast cancer. Let's not trivialize the emotional burden of breast cancer," warns Bellet, who however insists that Verzenios is a drug that doctors "had never seen before." "With more drugs like this, things can change," she says.