Drug helps breast cancer patients preserve fertility

CHICAGO, USA – Young women undergoing chemotherapy for certain types of breast cancer may be able to preserve their fertility by adding the drug goserelin to their treatment, researchers said Friday, May 30.

The cancer drug also appeared to improve survival, according to the results of a phase III clinical trial unveiled at the American Society for Clinical Oncology annual meeting.

Early menopause can be triggered by breast cancer chemotherapy. Some women resume menstruating after chemo and can have children, but many cannot.

“I think these findings are going to change our clinical practice,” said senior study author Kathy Albain of Loyola University Medical Center.

Some 49,000 women under 50 are diagnosed with breast cancer each year in the United States, making up about a quarter of all breast cancer cases.

About 15% of young women have cancers that are hormone receptor negative, and these are the women who could benefit from taking goserelin to essentially put the ovaries at rest during chemo, researchers said.

The study randomly assigned 131 patients to receive standard chemotherapy and 126 to receive chemotherapy plus goserelin by injection once every 4 weeks.

Nearly half (45%) of the women on standard chemo stopped menstruating after two years.

Only 20% of the women receiving goserelin had stopped menstruating.

Pregnancies were twice as common in the goserelin group – 21% compared to 11%.

And 89% of the women taking goserelin had no signs or symptoms of cancer 4 years later, compared to 78% of those receiving standard chemotherapy.

Survival was higher too – 92% in the goserelin group and 82% in the standard chemo group.

Albain said women who need to undergo chemo for early breast cancer should consider taking goserelin to prevent premature ovarian failure.

Goserelin, known by the brand name Zoladex, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration for prostate cancer, certain benign gynecological disorders and certain breast cancers. – Rappler.com