“With the new targeted therapies for Er+/Her2- metastatic breast cancer, including elacestrant, we avoid the need for chemotherapy for a subgroup of patients who, according to estimates, are around 2,000 in Italy. It is the first time that we have a molecularly targeted treatment on a population already treated with antihormonal therapy and cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors”. This was stated to Adnkronos Salute by oncologist Paolo Marchetti, president of the Foundation for Personalized Medicine, during a press conference promoted today in Rome with the unconditional contribution of Menarini Stemline, with experts from the Aiom Foundation and Fmp to ask that the new oral hormone therapies also be available in Italy.
“We are talking about a group of women who have been used for many months, sometimes for 3-4 years – explains Marchetti – to a relatively undemanding hormonal treatment that did not disturb their daily lives. So being able to continue with a new treatment, once again based on an oral hormonal therapy, directed at a specific target, obviously represents a great advantage”. On the availability of elacestrant in Italy, Marchetti specified: “It does not depend on the oncologists, but on the AIFA that is evaluating the registration dossier and should express its opinion either immediately before or immediately after the summer. So I assume that it will be available by the end of the year”.
From the point of view of the importance of this treatment, “we must consider the population it is aimed at – concludes Marchetti – Another great advantage is that we, instead of doing a biopsy on the tissue, can recognize these alterations through a simple blood sample”.