New drug approval for breast cancer patients

UAE's Ministry of Health and Prevention has authorized the use of a new drug developed by MSD Pharmaceuticals that is set to bring hope to triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients.

This makes the UAE the world's second country to approve the drug after the United States.

Breast cancer accounts for 21.4 per cent of the number of new cancer cases in the UAE, according to the World Health Organization data from 2020, with TNBC constituting 15 per cent of total breast cancer cases globally

Dr Dina Hamza, Consultant Medical Oncologist, Dubai Hospital said, "The launch of this new drug will offer a renewed sense of hope for patients with TNBC. They will now have access to this immuno-therapy across public and private clinics."

"The approved drug is taken along with chemotherapy. The recommended dosage of the drug for TNBC is 200 mg every three weeks or 400 mg every six weeks as an intravenous infusion over 30 minutes. It is administered in combination with chemotherapy for neoadjuvant treatment for 24 weeks, and then as a single agent for adjuvant treatment for up to 27 weeks" said Prof Humaid Al Shamsi, President EOS & professor at the University of Sharjah.

He also affirmed that the reoccurrence rate of TNBC was reduced under the drug when compared with just chemotherapy.

"The addition of the drug to treatment reduces the reoccurrence rate and risk of death," added Dr Al Shamsi.