A DRUG which prolongs the lives of patients with ovarian cancer may also be effective in some cases of breast cancer, according to the company which manufactures it in Ireland.
A spokesman for Bristol Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals Ltd said indications were "very positive" that it could help. More information will be given at a seminar in the Mater Hospital, Dublin, later this month. The company manufactures the drug, Taxol, at Swords, Co Dublin.
Yesterday the New England Journal of Medicine published a study showing that the drug boosted the average survival time of women with advanced ovarian cancer by over 50 per cent.
In the study, women at advanced stages of the disease who received standard chemotherapy survived for 24.4 months on average. But those who received Taxol along with another drug, Platinol, lived for 37.5 months on average.
A spokesman for the company said Taxol had been used with standard chemotherapy for years. The study had established that, used in conjunction with Platinol it was more effective than standard chemotherapy where the disease is advanced.
About 60 per cent of women with ovarian cancer die from it. While the study deals with the effects of the drugs in advanced cases, the head of the research programme, Dr William McGuire, in a statement issued by the company, said "We think it may have an even greater effect for patients in earlier stages".