A new breast cancer treatment drug that comes from sea sponges has been found to extend the life of breast cancer patients whose cancer recurred even after five rounds of chemo, by an average of 10 weeks. That might not sound like much, but in the world of the seriously ill facing death, those extra days and weeks are beyond price.
Eribulin is a new compound discovered and developed by Eisai. It is naturally derived compound that came from a marine sponge and is used as a chemo drug that works against the scaffolding that protects cancer cells, interfering with cell division and causing the cells to die off instead. This approach is used by older chemotherapy medications (taxanes) that work on a different part of the scaffolding.
The study involved 762 breast cancer patients whose tumors had spread despite chemotherapy, two thirds of them took the experimental drug eribulin given in a two to five minute IV infusion on day 1 and day 8 of a 21 day cycle.
The rest got whatever treatment (chemo, hormonal or biological therapy) their oncologist thought best. Sometimes this was another chemotherapy agent, in other cases only supportive care for pain and fatigue.
