ed during the period of organogenesis, have shown that letrozole is embryotoxic and fetotoxic, as indicated by intrauterine mortality, increased resorption, increased postimplantation loss, decreased numbers of live fetuses and fetal anomalies including absence and shortening of renal papilla, dilation of ureter, edema and incomplete ossification of frontal skull and metatarsals. Letrozole was teratogenic in rats. A 0.03 mg/kg dose (about 1/10 the daily maximum recommended human dose on a mg/m2 basis) caused fetal domed head and cervical/centrum vertebral fusion.
Letrozole is embryotoxic at doses equal to or greater than 0.002 mg/kg and fetotoxic when administered to rabbits at 0.02 mg/kg (about 1/100,000 and 1/10,000 the daily maximum recommended human dose on a mg/m2 basis, respectively). Fetal anomalies included incomplete ossification of the skull, sternebrae, and fore- and hind legs.
14 CLINICAL STUDIES
14.1 Updated Adjuvant Treatment of Early Breast CancerIn a multicenter study enrolling over 8,000 postmenopausal women with resected, receptor-positive early breast cancer, one of the following treatments was randomized in a double-blind manner:
Option 1:
A.tamoxifen for 5 years
B.Femara for 5 years
C.tamoxifen for 2 years followed by Femara for 3 years
D.Femara for 2 years followed by tamoxifen for 3 years
Option 2:
A.tamoxifen for 5 years
B.Femara for 5 years
The study in the adjuvant setting, BIG 1-98 was designed to answer two primary questions: whether Femara for 5 years was superior to tamoxifen for 5 years (Primary Core Analysis) and whether switching endocrine treatments at 2 years was superior to continuing the same agent for a total of 5 years (Sequential Treatments Analysis). Selected baseline characteristics for the study population are shown in Table 5.
The primary endpoint of this trial was disease-free survival (DFS) (i.e., interval between randomization and earliest occurrence of a local, regional, or distant recurrence, or invasive contralateral breast cancer, or death from any cause). The secondary endpoints were overall survival (OS), systemic disease-free survival (SDFS), invasive contralateral breast cancer, time to breast cancer recurrence (TBR) and time to distant metastasis (TDM).
The Primary Core Analysis (PCA) included all patients and all follow-up in the monotherapy arms in both randomization options, but follow-up in the two sequential treatments arms was truncated 30 days after switching treatments. The PCA was conducted at a median treatment duration of 24 months and a median follow-up of 26 months. Femara was superior to tamoxifen in all endpoints except overall survival and contralateral breast cancer [e.g., DFS: hazard ratio, HR 0.79; 95% CI (0.68, 0.92); P=0.002; SDFS: HR 0.83; 95% CI (0.70, 0.97); TDM: HR 0.73; 95% CI (0.60, 0.88); OS: HR 0.86; 95% CI (0.70, 1.06).
In 2005, based on recommendations by the independent Data Monitoring Committee, the tamoxifen arms were unblinded and patients were allowed to complete initial adjuvant therapy with Femara (if they had received tamoxifen for at least 2 years) or to start extended adjuvant treatment with Femara (if they had received tamoxifen for at least 4.5 years) if they remained alive and disease-free. In total, 632 patients crossed to Femara or another aromatase inhibitor. Approximately 70% (448) of these 632 patients crossed to Femara to compl |
