Sea sponge drug can give women with breast cancer an extra 5 months of life

Posted by: Deepak Kumar
New research suggests that a cancer drug
developed from sea sponges could help women
with one of the most advanced stages of breast
cancer live five months longer. 
A drug called eribulin could help extend the lives
of women with the most advanced forms of
breast cancer by at least two months, new
research suggests. The drug mimics the behaviour
of a compound naturally found in sea sponges.
Although it’s not a cure, research presented at
the National Cancer Research Institute in
Liverpool, UK, has revealed that women with
advanced triple negative breast cancer can live for
an average of five extra months when taking the
drug.
The drug is already being used to treat women
who have previously undergone two rounds of
chemotherapy, but this is the first time it's been
tested as an earlier form of treatment. It's now
passed Phase III clinical trials, which is the last
step before a drug is released onto the market.
The incredible results are taken from two major
clinical trials involving more than 1,800 women
with breast cancer that had already started
spreading to other parts of the body - a process
known as metastasis.
Metastasis is responsible for around 90 percent of
all cancer deaths and, once it’s occurred, breast
cancer patients only have around a one in 10
chance of living for 10 years. If the cancer hasn’t
spread, patients now have a nine in 10 chance of
surviving for a decade.
The studies showed that, overall, eribulin can help
women with breast cancer survive two months
longer than those receiving regular treatment. But
in the groups of women who had the advanced
triple negative form of breast cancer, which has
limited treatment options available, these women
survived for nearly five months longer they did
without the drug.
"Eribulin has previously been offered to women
who've already been through several lines of
chemotherapy. But the European Union has
recently approved eribulin for patients who have
received less treatment for their breast cancer,
which means we hope to give more patients
another treatment option in the not-too-distant
future,” said Chris Twelves, an oncologist based
at the University of Leeds in the UK who led the
research, in a press release.
Eribulin works by stopping the cancer cells from
dividing by inhibiting microtubules - structures in
the cell that are involved in mitosis, when one cell
splits into two. Eribulin was originally taken from
a molecule called Halichondrin B , which nautrally
occurs in a species of sea sponge called
Halichondria okadai (not pictured above), but
now it’s produced in the lab.
"These results are encouraging and may offer
valuable extra time to patients whose cancers
have stopped responding to conventional
treatments and have few options left. Advanced
breast cancer can be very difficult to treat so
these results take us a small, important step in
the right direction,” said Martin Ledwick, the head
information nurse at Cancer Research UK, in the
release.
"Although eribulin isn't a cure, it's an extra
treatment option for patients with advanced
breast cancer, which can be priceless to them and
their families."