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Menarini Group Highlights Combination Potential of Elacestrant (ORSERDU®) in Metastatic Breast Cancer at ASCO 2025
The Menarini Group, a leading international pharmaceutical company, is set to present updated data at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in 2025, reinforcing the potential of Elacestrant (marketed as ORSERDU®) in combination therapies for women with ER+, HER2- metastatic breast cancer (mBC). This presentation could mark an important step forward in optimizing treatment strategies for this specific type of breast cancer.
Understanding the Significance
Breast cancer is a complex disease, and metastatic breast cancer, where the cancer has spread to other parts of the body, presents significant challenges for treatment. ER+ (estrogen receptor-positive) and HER2- (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative) breast cancer is a common subtype, accounting for a significant percentage of all breast cancer cases. This subtype relies on estrogen to fuel its growth. Therefore, therapies targeting the estrogen receptor (ER) pathway are often a cornerstone of treatment.
What is Elacestrant (ORSERDU®)?
Elacestrant is a selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD). Traditional hormone therapies like aromatase inhibitors (AIs) block the production of estrogen, while SERDs like Elacestrant go a step further by binding to the estrogen receptor and causing it to degrade or be eliminated from the cell. This mechanism offers a potential advantage, particularly in cases where cancer cells have become resistant to other hormone therapies. It is an oral therapy, offering a convenient alternative to injectable treatments.
The Focus on Combination Therapies
The press release headline specifically highlights the “combinability” of Elacestrant. This suggests that the data being presented at ASCO 2025 will focus on how well Elacestrant works when used in conjunction with other cancer treatments.
Why is this important?
- Overcoming Resistance: Cancer cells can develop resistance to individual therapies over time. Using multiple drugs with different mechanisms of action can help overcome or delay the emergence of resistance.
- Synergistic Effects: Combining treatments can sometimes result in a synergistic effect, where the combined effect of the drugs is greater than the sum of their individual effects.
- Targeting Multiple Pathways: Cancer cells often rely on multiple pathways for growth and survival. Combination therapies can target multiple pathways simultaneously, leading to a more comprehensive attack on the cancer.
Potential Combination Partners
While the press release doesn’t specify which other treatments Elacestrant is being combined with, some likely possibilities include:
- CDK4/6 Inhibitors: Drugs like palbociclib (Ibrance), ribociclib (Kisqali), and abemaciclib (Verzenio) are often used in combination with hormone therapies as first-line treatment for ER+, HER2- mBC. Exploring the combination of Elacestrant with a CDK4/6 inhibitor could be a key area of research.
- PI3K Inhibitors: Alpelisib (Piqray) is a PI3K inhibitor approved for use in combination with fulvestrant in patients with certain mutations in the PIK3CA gene.
- Other Targeted Therapies: Researchers are constantly investigating new targeted therapies that could be combined with hormone therapy.
What to Expect at ASCO 2025
The ASCO presentation will likely provide details on the following:
- Study Design: Information about the clinical trial(s) that generated the data, including the number of patients enrolled, the specific combination of treatments used, and the patient population characteristics (e.g., prior treatments received).
- Efficacy Data: Key efficacy endpoints, such as progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and objective response rate (ORR). PFS measures the length of time that a patient lives without their cancer progressing. OS measures the length of time that a patient lives after starting treatment. ORR measures the percentage of patients whose cancer shrinks or disappears in response to treatment.
- Safety Data: Information about the side effects experienced by patients in the study. Understanding the safety profile of Elacestrant in combination with other treatments is crucial for determining the optimal treatment approach.
- Biomarker Analysis: Exploration of potential biomarkers that could predict which patients are most likely to benefit from Elacestrant-based combination therapies.
Why This Matters to Patients
For women living with ER+, HER2- metastatic breast cancer, the development of new and effective treatment strategies is paramount. Data supporting the combinability of Elacestrant could offer more treatment options, potentially leading to:
- Improved Outcomes: The hope is that combination therapies will lead to longer survival times, improved quality of life, and better control of the disease.
- Personalized Treatment: By identifying biomarkers that predict response to Elacestrant, doctors can better tailor treatment to the individual needs of each patient.
- Expanded Treatment Options: Having more treatment options available is always beneficial, especially for patients who have become resistant to other therapies.
In Conclusion
The upcoming presentation by the Menarini Group at ASCO 2025 is an important event in the field of breast cancer research. The data on the combinability of Elacestrant has the potential to shape future treatment strategies for ER+, HER2- metastatic breast cancer, offering hope for improved outcomes and a better quality of life for patients.
The AI has delivered the news.
The following question was used to generate the response from Google Gemini:
At 2025-05-25 13:39, ‘Menarini Group stellt auf der ASCO-Jahrestagung 2025 aktualisierte Daten vor, die die Kombinierbarkeit von Elacestrant (ORSERDU®) bei Patientinnen mit ER+, HER2- metastasiertem Brustkrebs (mBC) unterstreichen’ was published according to PR Newswire. Please write a detailed article with related information in an easy-to-understand manner. Please answer in English.
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