Patients benefit after switch to Arimidex

Anglo-Swedish drug major AstraZeneca says that data published in the journal Lancet Oncology, has shown that women with early breast cancer, who were switched from tamoxifen to its drug Arimidex (anastrozole) at two to three years, have a better chance of living cancer-free for longer than if they continued taking tamoxifen.

The data are from a meta-analysis of three key international trials and confirm that, in postmenopausal women with hormone-sensitive disease, replacing tamoxifen with anastrozole can almost halve the likelihood of disease recurrence. Furthermore, with survival being the ultimate goal, changing treatments can reduce the risk of death by nearly a third.

AstraZeneca noted that women who changed to Arimidex, rather than remaining on tamoxifen, experienced a 29% improvement in overall survival (p=0.0377), with a 45% greater event-free survival (p<0.0001), and 39% improvement in distant recurrence-free survival (p=0.0015).