Relief for Breast Cancer Victims after New Drug Discovered in UK

A new drug to treat breast cancer has now been launched in the UK.

The drug, called Capivasertib, is said to not have serious side effects on patients like other drugs that are very harsh.

It has a specific treatment that targets the AKT protein, a molecule that stimulates cancer growth.

This drug works by completely blocking the activity of that protein, thus controlling the growth of malignant cells.

Scientists have been working on this drug for over twenty years, and now believe it is the most effective yet seen in patients with advanced cancer.

“It offers a highly effective alternative, which can work for a long time — for many months, and in some patients even for years,” said Professor Nick Turner, lead researcher and professor of medical oncology at the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden Hospital.

Trials of the drug show it reduces swelling in about a quarter of women with breast cancer and continues to work in the body for up to a year.

Breast cancer is the most commonly reported cancer in the UK, with one in seven women affected by the cancer in her lifetime, and 75 per cent of patients surviving for more than ten years after diagnosis.

Advances in treatment continue to bring new hope.

If the cancer returns and spreads to other parts of the body, the main goal of treatment is to control it, reduce symptoms, and improve the patient’s quality of life.

Possible treatments include chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and specific drugs that inhibit cancer growth — by blocking hormones, boosting the body’s immune system, or directly targeting the factors that cause cancer cells to grow.

This drug is suitable for patients with certain genetic mutations that affect up to half of those with hormone-dependent stage II breast cancer — the most common type that develops in dependence on the hormone oestrogen.

For his part, Professor Peter Johnson, Director of Cancer Services at NHS England, said that the drug is an “additional option” for patients whose cancer has progressed despite previous hormone therapy — although not everyone will be suitable for it.

Ms Claire Rowney, CEO of the charity Breast Cancer Now, said she was delighted to see the drug giving patients “the hope of extra time to live and do the things they want most in life.”