Mumbai, Oct 24 (PTI) Adding low-cost chemotherapy drug carboplatin to standard treatment significantly improves the chances of cure and survival in patients, especially women below 50, with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), an aggressive form of breast cancer, says a new study led by Tata Memorial Centre (TMC).
This randomised Phase III trial (a late-stage, confirmatory clinical study) enrolled 720 women with stage II-III TNBC, who had the axillary lymph nodes but the cancer had not spread to other organs, between 2010 and 2020 at Tata Memorial Centre (TMC), Mumbai.
All patients received the standard chemotherapy regimen (once-per-week paclitaxel for 8 weeks, followed by doxorubicin plus cyclophosphamide every 21 days for 4 cycles) to shrink their tumours before surgery, the study’s lead author, Dr Sudeep Gupta, Director of TMC, Mumbai, told reporters on Friday.
During the study patients in the platinum group additionally received carboplatin injections once a week for 8 weeks, alongside the standard chemotherapy.
“Carboplatin is a commonly available, inexpensive chemotherapy drug often used for other cancers. After completing chemotherapy, all patients underwent surgery and radiation as usual and were then monitored over time,” Dr Gupta said.
Adding carboplatin did not lead to major additional side effects – the treatment was well tolerated, with no high rates of serious toxicity observed, he said.
Doctors also noted that using weekly (lower-dose) carboplatin likely helped patients complete therapy with manageable side effects, Dr Gupta added.
He said the study also found this drug had a huge impact on patients who were younger than 50 years but in older patients there was not much benefit.
“Even as young patients all over the world will benefit equally from this treatment, it is specifically very important for India and similar countries where we have a lot more young patients,” he added.
In India there are about 180,000 new breast cancer cases every year and a third of them (55,000-60,000) are with TNBC, wherein the survival was extremely poor. Of these 55,000-60,000 new TNBC cases, almost 70 per cent of the women are below 50 years.
“Now, thanks to this study, we have proof that an accessible, low-cost drug can improve their chances of cure and survival. We expect doctors around the world to now confidently add carboplatin for treating TNBC in suitable patients,” TMC ex-director and Tata Memorial Hospital Honorary Professor Emeritus Dr Rajendra A Badwe said.
He said eight doses of carboplatin costs about Rs 5,000-7,000 bringing the total treatment cost to around Rs 20,000-25,000 prior to surgery.
Carboplatin is also part of standard treatment and is supported by the state insurance as well as by the Union health ministry insurance, Dr Badwe added. PTI SM BNM
Category: Breaking News
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