Experimental Spanish drug could cure half of all breast cancer patients

SPANISH scientists have created a new drug which could cure half of breast cancer cases.

The experimental drug, called nintedanib, causes, in combination with standard chemotherapy with paclitaxel, a total remission of tumours in 50 per cent of patients with early breast cancer HER2-negative, the most common type of breast cancer types.

These are the findings of a first phase clinical trial sponsored by the National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) through the Clinical Research Unit of Breast Cancer.

Miguel Angel Quintela, Head of the CNIO, said: “The combination of drugs has proved to be a success, since it has proven to be completely safe and yielded rates of complete cure of 50 per cent.” The trial included 10 patients with HER2-negative breast cancer, all in early stages of the disease.

In view of the results, the institution has already launched a large-scale clinical study for phase two to validate the work in a larger number of patients.

The results are expected in early 2015.