Study: Pemetrexed Shows Promise as Therapy for Advanced Breast Cancer

A phase II study has shown significant antitumor activity associated with the drug pemetrexed as treatment for advanced breast cancer, according to researchers in the United Kingdom.

Thirty eight patients with locally recurrent or metastatic breast cancer were treated with pemetrexed at Guy's Hospital in London, University of Hull School of Medicine in Hull, Weston Park Hospital in Sheffield, and University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, England, according to a report on their study in the European Journal of Cancer.

The patients ranged in age from 36 to 71 years old, and 33 of them had prior chemotherapy.

Positive responses were reported in 28 percent of patients treated with pemetrexed, and some of those responses occurred in patients who had been treated previously with anthracyclines and taxoids, according to the researchers.

Other sources: European Journal of Cancer