Older Drug for Advanced Breast Cancer Beat Newer, Pricier Meds

A woman doing a self-check for breast cancer.

By E.J. Mundell HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, June 4 (HealthDay News) -- Even in the field of cancer treatment, sometimes newer isn't necessarily better.

That may be the case for patients with advanced breast cancer, who appeared to fare better in a new study when they took an older drug, Taxol (paclitaxel), instead of two newer and more expensive rivals.

Both of those newer medications, Abraxane and Ixempra, failed to outperform Taxol in terms of either survival without progression of disease or the level of the most noxious side effects, the study of almost 800 breast cancer patients found.

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"These data suggest that similar patients may be appropriately treated with weekly paclitaxel [Taxol]," said study author Dr. Hope Rugo, director of breast oncology and clinical trials at the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, San Francisco.

She spoke at a news briefing Sunday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago. The study, which was funded by the U.S. National Cancer Institute, is to be formally presented on Monday.

Taxol has been used for years to help fight advanced, metastatic breast cancers. But, not every woman fares equally well on Taxol, and newer drugs have emerged, including a variant of paclitaxel called Abraxane (nanoparticle albumin bound paclitaxel) and a drug called Ixempra (ixabepilone).

However, these newer, patented drugs also carry heftier price tags than Taxol, which went off patent years ago. While calculating the exact price difference for any one patient is "enormously complicated," Rugo said that "a generic drug like paclitaxel is going to be significantly less expensive than newer agents."

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Older Drug for Advanced Breast Cancer Beat Newer, Pricier Meds