Bristol drug active in metastatic breast cancer

Last Updated: 2007-07-06 9:00:36 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. on Friday said its ixabepilone drug demonstrated clear activity in patients with metastatic breast cancer whose tumors were resistant to three standard types of chemotherapy.

Results from a 126-patient, phase II study will be published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the company said.

The New York-based drug maker said last month that U.S. health regulators granted priority review for ixabepilone, and an approval decision on the medicine could come by late October.

Bristol-Myers is seeking approval for ixabepilone to treat advanced breast cancer patients who have not responded to prior treatment with chemotherapies.

Ixabepilone belongs to a new class of drugs called epothilones that Bristol-Myers hopes will prove better able than standard drugs to thwart resistance by tumors.