Femara marks new territory

Researchers from Novartis AG reinforced the ability of pharmacogenomics to identify the non-obvious last week, as they presented data showing that Femara letrozole was more efficient than tamoxifen in treating breast cancer patients whose disease is characterized as estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) plus ErbB1 and/or ErbB2-positive.

"We know that these two drugs are not biologically equivalent, but the pathophysiological mechanism behind the differences are not completely understood," David Parkinson, vice president of oncology, told BioCentury. He noted that microarray analysis of cells treated with letrozole, an aromatase inhibitor that blocks estrogen production, and tamoxifen, a selective estrogen receptor modulator, show very different profiles...