A new chemotherapy agent, based on a natural extract from a sea sponge, can extend the lives of women with advanced breast cancer. Researchers found that on average, women with breast cancer that had returned or metastasized and spread to other parts of the body, and who had already been heavily treated with conventional therapies, lived 25 percent longer if they were given the new agent, eribulin mesylate.
“Until now, there hasn’t really been a standard treatment for women with such advanced breast cancer. For those women who have already received all of the recognized treatments, these are promising results,” says Christopher Twelves, a professor at the University of Leeds in the U.K.Full story at Futurity.