A “promising” immunotherapy drug can cut the risk of triple-negative breast cancer by more than a third, a recent long-term global study has found.
Triple-negative breast cancer is very aggressive and has a much poorer prognosis than other types of the disease.
Keytruda, also known as pembrolizumab, works with the immune system to fight the disease.
The drug helps the immune system recognise and attack cancer cells and it already being used to treat bladder cancer, skin cancer and Hodgkin lymphoma.
A total of 1,174 patients across 21 countries with previously untreated stage two or three triple-negative breast cancer were recruited for the trial.
The women were treated with Keytruda in addition to standard chemotherapy before surgery, followed by Keytruda after surgery.
After a follow up period of more than three years, experts found that the risk of the disease coming back was 37 per cent lower in patients who were treated with the combination than chemotherapy alone.
Study lead Prof Peter Schmid, of Queen Mary and St Bartholomew’s hospital, said:
“We had previously demonstrated that the addition of immunotherapy to pre-operative chemotherapy increases the treatment response in patients with triple-negative breast cancer at the time of surgery.
“We now have long-term results demonstrating that the combination therapy significantly reduces recurrences by approximately 37 per cent, including reduction of secondary breast cancer by 39 per cent.
“This means that the cure rate for these cancers is significantly increased.
“The estimates are that, just in the US where this treatment was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration, this new treatment may save as many as 10,000 lives per year.”
More than 8,000 women in the UK are diagnosed with the disease each year.
Chemotherapy is commonly used to shrink the tumour prior to surgery.
Dr Kotryna Temcinaite or charity Breast Cancer Now, said:
“The risk of triple-negative breast cancer returning and spreading to other parts of the body in the first few years after treatment is higher than it is for other breast cancers.
“This promising new treatment could prevent more lives being lost to this devastating disease.”