On November 27, the prestigious journal Nature will publish the results of an innovative breast cancer research project from the Netherlands. This study, the SONIA trial, showed that delaying and shortening the duration of a specific anti-cancer therapy (CDK4/6 inhibitors) in patients with hormone receptor-positive advanced breast cancer leads to similar survival outcomes, while reducing toxicity and achieving substantial cost reductions: over 45 million euros per year in the Netherlands and over 5 billion dollars in the United States. This is the first time an efficiency study like this has been conducted in collaboration with Dutch health insurance providers and the Ministry of Health, and it highlights the importance of research into the efficient use of medicines for patients, physicians, and policymakers worldwide.
The SONIA study CDK4/6 inhibitors have shown tremendous improvements in outcomes for women diagnosed with advanced breast cancer when used in conjunction with endocrine therapy. The inhibitors can be added to either first- or second-line endocrine therapy. The SONIA trial was initiated to find out which of these two moments of adding CDK4/6 inhibitors is the best.
All patients in the SONIA trial were randomly assigned to one of two groups. One group received a CDK4/6 inhibitor immediately after diagnosis of advanced breast cancer (first-line treatment). The other half received a CDK4/6 inhibitor after previous endocrine therapy had failed (i.
e. second-line tre.
