FEMARA® (letrozole) Helps Reduce The Risk Of Distant Metastases In Early Breast Cancer

What is your primary treatment goal in postmenopausal women with hormone receptor positive (HR+) early breast cancer?

"In terms of its impact on survival, it has been widely accepted that distant recurrence is a major predictor of death; thus, distant disease-free survival (DDFS) is a key efficacy endpoint in major clinical trials of adjuvant endocrine therapy."

– J Mansell et al                                                    
Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2009;117:91-98. 

In hormone receptor positive early breast cancer, why do your patients need early protection from distant metastases?

Distant metastases are the most common type of recurrence.¹

The initial peak in recurrence at 2 years after surgery is mainly due to distant metastases.¹ Distant recurrences can occur regardless of tumor grade, tumor size, or nodal status.^1,2

Annual recurrence rate in postmenopausal
hormone receptor positive (HR+) patients¹

Adapted from Mansell et al. Kaplan-Meier–estimated 2.5-year recurrence rates include the following (N=4245): distant metastases in 191 patients (4.5%); 42 patients (1.0%) and 21 patients (0.5%) with locoregional and contralateral recurrences, respectively.¹

Distant recurrences are associated with the lowest survival rates compared with other recurrences.³

Overall survival according to first event
in patients with early breast cancer⁴

Adapted from Le et al.⁴

The importance of demonstrating a reduction in the risk of distant metastases:

• Nearly 4 out of 5 patients are at risk of dying within 5 years when distant metastases are the first recurrence⁴
• Distant metastases represent a major economic burden to healthcare systems³

"A key goal of adjuvant treatment is to reduce the risk of distant metastases in women with early breast cancer and so improve survival."⁵

– JC Doughty, MD

Because the risk of distant metastases initially peaks early in your postmenopausal patients with HR+ early breast cancer,¹ choose an initial adjuvant therapy that can significantly reduce this risk.

Click here to read about FEMARA^® (letrozole), the only aromatase inhibitor that significantly reduced the early risk of distant metastases versus tamoxifen in the initial adjuvant setting.^6,7*

To read about the innovative clinical trial demonstrating these results, click here.

*Distant disease-free survival is a secondary end point of BIG 1-98; the primary end point of the study is disease-free
 survival. Approval is based on a median 26-month follow-up.⁶

FEMARA^® is indicated for the adjuvant treatment of postmenopausal women with hormone receptor positive early breast cancer.

Click here for Important Safety Information for FEMARA^®.

References: 1. Mansell J, Monypenny IJ, Skene AI, et al. Distant metastasis—the most common type of early recurrence with adjuvant tamoxifen therapy. Poster presented at: 30th Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; December 13-16, 2007; San Antonio, Texas. 2. Rugo HS. The importance of distant metastases in hormone-sensitive breast cancer. Breast. 2008;17(suppl 1):S3-S8. 3. Rugo H, Rourke M, Dranitsaris G, Kaura S. Letrozole or anastrozole for the prevention of early recurrences in post menopausal women with early stage breast cancer: using number needed to treat (NNT) to compare benefit (abstract). EJC Supplements. 2008;6(7):118 (Abstract 236). 4. Le MG, Arriagada R, Spielmann M, Guinebretiere J-M, Rochard F. Prognostic factors for death after an isolated local recurrence in patients with early-stage breast carcinoma. Cancer. 2002;94(11):2813-2820. 5. Doughty JC. A review of the BIG results: the Breast International Group 1-98 trial analyses. Breast. 2008;17(S1):S9-S14. 6. FEMARA^® (letrozole) [summary of product characteristics]. Basel, Switzerland: Novartis Pharma AG; 2009. 7. Gradishar W. Landmark trials in endocrine adjuvant therapy for breast carcinoma. Cancer. 2006;106(5):975-981.