Medication for metastatic breast cancer available in 2018 in Mexico

MEXICO – The Novartis pharmaceutical company reported that authorization was obtained from health officials to sell a drug to combat metastatic breast cancer (that extends to other parts of the body), which would allow a survival of up to five years.

In a press conference the general director of Novartis Oncology, Miguel Gallero, and medical specialists, highlighted the benefits of this drug that obtained the sanitary registry in November and will be available in the first third of 2018.

Gallero informed that Novartis invested nine billion dollars in 2016, worldwide, to promote the research of various molecules to continue the development of innovative medicines, such as the one called Ribociclib.

He added that precisely with the support of these innovative medicines, treatments are offered that give hope to patients to extend their life with quality, even to incorporate them into their daily tasks.

He indicated that 60% to 80 % of metastatic cancer in Mexico is diagnosed in locally advanced stages, however, with the application of new treatments, 81% of patients in stage four, which is among the most advanced, achieves five-year survival.

Meanwhile, the medical director of Novartis Oncology, Guillermina Muñoz, said that the treatments that this international laboratory has developed have revolutionized the context of patients with metastatic breast cancer in the world.

She highlighted that by doing research on the molecule that gives rise to Ribociclib, the increase, almost double, of progression-free survival, which allows a better quality of life, was demonstrated.

She explained that after two years of treatment, the combination of Ribociclib plus Letrozole increased the percentage of progression-free survival to 54.7%, compared with 35.9% in patients treated only with Letrozole.

The psychologist Alejandra Platas, of the Doctors and Researchers Foundation in the Fight against Breast Cancer (MILC), pointed out that 50 percent of the cases of advanced cancer in Mexico do not receive treatment when they face chronic pain, reason why she considered that it requires more prevention actions.

Source: www.yucatan.com.mx/health/