Charles Coombes, MD

Charles Coombes, MD, professor of medical oncology, Imperial College London, discusses a study of celecoxib versus placebo in primary breast cancer patients.

There is a lot of data to suggest that inflammation is important in breast cancer progression, Coombes notes. In the study, more than 2,600 women with breast cancer were randomized to celecoxib or placebo. They took a moderate dose of celecoxib for 2 years following adjuvant radiotherapy or chemotherapy if they had any.

Overall, there was found to be no benefit of taking celecoxib. To date, about 20% of the women have experienced some sort of relapse, Coomes says. However, 2 interesting features emerged with regard to the side effects. Investigators expected to see cardiac and stroke events in the treated population, but there were no significant toxicities observed. Additionally, there was an improvement seen in arthralgia and disease-free survival for women who did not receive chemotherapy.

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Charles Coombes, MD, professor of medical oncology, Imperial College London, discusses a study of celecoxib versus placebo in primary breast cancer patients.&nbsp;

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