FDA approved Verzenio (abemaciclib) to treat adult patients who have hormone receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative advanced or metastatic breast cancer that has progressed after taking therapy that alters a patient’s hormones.Verzenio, sponsored by Eli Lilly, is approved to be given in combination with an endocrine therapy, called fulvestrant, after the cancer had grown on endocrine therapy. It is also approved to be given on its own, if patients were previously treated with endocrine therapy and chemotherapy after the cancer had spread.
How’s this for a paradox: The better cancer centers become at keeping patients alive, the more expensive cancer care becomes. This brutal tradeoff hits harder in rural areas, where the cancer burden is higher and the investigator and clinical trial representation is lower.
