Novartis breast cancer drug Kisqali cuts risk of death by 19% after six years
Kisqali plus hormone therapy kept 91.9% of women alive at six years versus 89.7% on hormone therapy alone, trial data presented at ESMO in Madrid shows.
Novartis’ breast cancer drug Kisqali extended survival for women with high-risk, early-stage breast cancer, cutting their risk of death by 19 per cent after six years, according to trial data presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) congress in Madrid on Friday.
At six years, 91.9 per cent of women who received Kisqali alongside hormone therapy were alive, compared with 89.7 per cent of those who received hormone therapy alone. The survival gap widened from 1.2 percentage points at five years to 2.1 percentage points at six.
Researchers had expected it would take about a decade of follow-up before a survival difference emerged. “Turns out we’re seeing a difference even sooner,” said UCLA’s Dennis Slamon, the trial’s lead investigator.
Kisqali works by slowing cancer cells rather than killing them immediately. The longer the cancer cells stay frozen, the more likely they are to permanently stop dividing and die.
The drug is already approved in the United States and the European Union for patients with stage 2 or 3 breast cancer at high risk of recurrence.
Analysts expect sales of the drug to be about $7 billion for this year, according to Visible Alpha estimates.
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