Experimental Buparlisib Offers Benefits, But Side Effects Too Toxic: 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium

The experimental medicine buparlisib helps treat metastatic hormone-receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer that has been treated with an aromatase inhibitor, but grew after being treated with Afinitor (chemical name: everolimus) and Aromasin (chemical name: exemestane). In this podcast from the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, Ruth O'Regan, M.D., professor of hematology and oncology at the University of Wisconsin and one of the researchers who did the phase III BELLE-3 trial, discusses the results of the study and explains why the mechanics of how buparlisib work are promising, even if buparlisib probably isn't the right medicine to treat breast cancer. Listen to the podcast to hear Dr. O'Regan talk about: how buparlisib works why inhibiting the PI3 kinase pathway may help treat metastatic, hormone-receptor-positive disease that has stopped responding to hormonal therapy buparlisib's unacceptable side effects how she plans to talk to her patients about buparlisib