New drugs tested for effectiveness against advanced cases of disease.

2004 JAN 1 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- An experimental chemotherapy drug called Abraxane was more effective in treating advanced cases of breast cancer and carried fewer side effects than its widely used cousin Taxol, according to a study presented at the 26th Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

In another chemotherapy-related study released December 5, 2003, the drug docetaxel - widely used for late-stage breast cancer since the mid-1990s - was found to be dramatically better at battling a common early-stage form of the disease than fluorouracil, long a standard treatment.

Research by the Breast Cancer International Research Group determined that 5 years after initial treatment, the docetaxel patients had a 28% lower risk of recurrence than the fluorouracil patients.

"I think this will be convincing to a lot of doctors," said John Mackey, MD, a breast cancer specialist at the University of Alberta in Canada and a co-leader of the study. "People change their [drug recommendations] based on a 2% to 3% improvement."

A study involving 454 women with breast cancer that had spread elsewhere in the body found that 33% of tumors shrank or experienced slower growth with Abraxane, compared with 19% for Taxol. Abraxane also slowed tumor growth significantly in those patients.

Abraxane is on a fast-track approval schedule with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Its maker, American BioScience Inc., which sponsored the study, plans to file its final data for approval in early 2004, said spokeswoman Susan Bro.

Both Taxol and Abraxane are derived from paclitaxel, which works by interfering with a cancer cell's ability to divide. A big difference is how they make their way through the body, and thus how large the dosage can be.