Breast Cancer: Targeted Therapies Offer Novel Treatment Modalities

Despite the availability of approximately 25 drugs for the treatment of breast cancer, the unmet need in the global market is vast. To address this drawback, pharmaceutical companies have established a robust pipeline that currently has about 52 drugs in development. While chemotherapy remains the most important class of drugs for breast cancer treatment, the trend toward targeted drugs is on the rise.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, A Competitive Analysis of the Global Breast Cancer Therapeutics Market, finds that the market earned revenues of approximately $10.0 billion in 2014 and estimates this to reach $13.38 billion in 2018.

Breast cancer drugs are expensive and have placed a huge burden on patients and health insurance agencies. The lack of effective therapies, especially for triple negative breast cancer, is another excruciating challenge.

“The emergence of a new class of targeted therapies is likely to redefine the survival rates of patients with triple-negative cancers,” said Frost & Sullivan Healthcare Senior Research Analyst Sriram Radhakrishnan. “Poly-adenosine diphosphate ribose polymerase or PARP-based targeted therapies are under development and are expected to effectively treat breast cancers.”

Although Herceptin and Tykerb are the only targeted therapeutics available for breast cancer, the recently approved Kadcyla and Perjeta will bolster the portfolio of targeted drugs. Key drugs to watch between 2015 and 2017 are

•        ABT-888 (Abbvie)
•        NeuVax (Galena Biopharma)
•        Palbociclib (Pfizer)
•        NKTR-102 (Nektar Therapeutics)
•        CT-P6 (Celltrion).

“Focus has shifted to combination therapeutic modalities that have displayed the potential to improve progression-free survival rates,” observed Radhakrishnan. “The combination of therapeutic modalities — targeted therapies along with chemotherapy — could also make treatment affordable for patients.”

With technological advances likely to improve the scope of diagnosis and offer personalised treatment for patients, the race to formulate effective therapies for breast cancer is well and truly on.