Fulvestrant: A Review in the First-Line Treatment of Advanced Breast Cancer
online resource
posted on 2018-04-09, 03:11authored byEmma D. Deeks
Compliance with Ethical Standards
Funding: The preparation of this review was not supported by any external funding.
Conflicts of interest: Emma Deeks is a salaried employee of Adis/Springer, is responsible for the article content and declares no relevant conflicts of interest.
Additional information about this Adis Drug Review can be found here.
Abstract
Fulvestrant (Faslodex®), a selective estrogen receptor (ER) down-regulator, is now indicated for the treatment of ER positive/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 negative advanced breast cancer in postmenopausal women previously untreated with endocrine therapy. In the phase 3 FALCON trial conducted in this setting, intramuscular fulvestrant 500 mg/month (plus an additional dose at 2 weeks) was significantly more effective in prolonging progression-free survival (PFS) than oral anastrozole 1 mg/day (particularly in patients with non-visceral disease), with this benefit seemingly driven by fulvestrant recipients responding significantly longer to treatment. Other efficacy measures, including objective response rate, did not significantly or markedly differ between the two regimens and median overall survival was not yet calculable. Fulvestrant was generally well tolerated in this trial, displaying an overall tolerability profile consistent with its known tolerability in other breast cancer settings. Thus, monotherapy with intramuscular fulvestrant is a generally well tolerated and more effective treatment option than standard-of-care anastrozole for advanced breast cancer in postmenopausal women not previously treated with endocrine therapy. Access to the full article can be foundhere.