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"Aromasin approved for breast cancer cases; Post-menopausal women benefit To be used after tamoxifen"

Source: Toronto Star

Published: 19 May 2022

Category: Pharmaceutical

Rating: (2½ stars)

what they said (Hover the mouse cursor over underlined words for more info)

A new drug is now part of the Canadian arsenal for post- menopausal women fighting breast cancer.
Health Canada has approved the Pfizer drug Aromasin for use after surgery in post-menopausal women who have estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer and who've already had two to three years of tamoxifen therapy.
Aromasin is one of three new drugs called aromatase inhibitors, said Dr. Kathleen Pritchard of the University of Toronto and the Sunnybrook Regional Cancer Centre. Pritchard's research interests involve the role of hormones in breast cancer. She is not a paid consultant for the drug firm Pfizer Canada....

The original article can found in the Media Doctor archives.

how did it rate? (more information)

Criteria	Rating
Total Score	5 of 10
Availability of Treatment	Satisfactory (?)
Novelty of Treatment	Satisfactory (?)
Disease Mongering	Satisfactory (?)
Treatment Options	Satisfactory (?)
Costs of Treatment	Not Satisfactory (?)
Evidence	Not Satisfactory (?)
Quantification of Benefits of Treatment	Not Satisfactory (?)
Harms of Treatment	Not Satisfactory (?)
Sources of Information	Satisfactory (?)
Relies on Press Release	Not Applicable
Quantification of Harms of Treatment	Not Satisfactory (?)

what we said (Hover the mouse cursor over underlined words for more info)

A few simple additions could have significantly improved the information quality of this article. The benefit of Aromasin (exemestane) was stated in relative terms instead of absolute, which was 4.7%. There was no discussion of the strength of the evidence or the potential harms of the treatment. Although, this grading scale does not call for it, the description of the drug's mechanism of action was valuable in explaining why this drug utility is limited to post-menopausal women. The drug's availability in Canada was limited to Ontario, which is appropriate given that it is a Toronto paper.

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