Evaluation of the efficacy of everolimus/Afinitor in breast cancer

Everolimus (Everolimus) is an oral immunosuppressant that mainly works by inhibiting the mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) signaling pathway. mTOR is a key regulator of cell growth, proliferation and survival. Especially in many cancer types, abnormal activation of the mTOR signaling pathway is closely related to tumor progression. Everolimus is widely used to treat various malignant tumors, includingbreast cancer, renal cancer, and neuroendocrine tumors. In recent years, everolimus has shown significant efficacy in combination with other anticancer drugs, especially in patients with hormone receptor-positive (HR+) and HER2-negative (HER2-) advanced breast cancer.

Breast cancer is one of the most common female malignancies in the world, especially hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, which accounts for a large proportion of all breast cancers. This type of breast cancer is usually sensitive to hormone therapy, but in some patients, the effect of hormone therapy gradually weakens or becomes resistant. To overcome this challenge, everolimus is considered as a treatment option, especially when combined with other drugs to further inhibit tumor growth.

Research shows that everolimus combined with non-steroidal aromatase inhibitors (such as anastrozole, letrozole) has significant clinical efficacy in the treatment of hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer. Especially in patients whose disease worsened after receiving standard hormonal treatments such as letrozole and anastrozole, the addition of everolimus significantly prolonged progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). For example, in a study of 724 patients with advanced breast cancer, patients who received everolimus plus a nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitor (such as alfenib or exemestane) had no further progression and lived an average of 7.8 months, compared with an average of 3.2 months for patients who received a placebo alone. This result clearly demonstrates that everolimus can effectively delay disease progression and bring survival benefits to patients.

Everolimus can reduce the proliferation, angiogenesis and survival of cancer cells by inhibiting themTOR signaling pathway, thereby effectively inhibiting tumor growth. For breast cancer patients, especially those who are hormone receptor positive and HER2 negative, everolimus is particularly effective. Such patients usually respond well to hormone therapy, but as the disease progresses, resistance to hormone therapy often occurs. The addition of everolimus can further enhance the therapeutic effect and reduce the resistance of tumor cells to hormone therapy.

In addition, everolimus also shows good potential in combination therapy with other targeted drugs. In some combination therapy studies, everolimus can be used not only with non-steroidal aromatase inhibitors, but also withCDK4/6 inhibitors, HER2-targeted drugs and other drugs are used in combination to further improve patient efficacy and prognosis. This provides more treatment options for the treatment of breast cancer, especially for patients who are ineffective or resistant to traditional treatments. The combined application of everolimus may become a new treatment strategy.

Reference materials:https://www.drugs.com/everolimus.html