Ibrance and Letrozole: Newly Diagnosed Treatment

Yay you!!! This is the best news ever!!! So happy for you♥️♥️♥️

I have been taking Ibrance and Lextrozole for a year. I had scans read three days ago by my oncologist. Hallelujah… my MBC is in remission. My breast tumor is gone, only scar tissue. Spine lesions gone. OMG!!
This is my second bout with Cancer, in 2018 I had Uterine Cancer. I had chemo and radiation and surgery to remove the tumor. To this day NED. These drugs have been kicking Cancer’s ass.

Will you continue with either drug during remission? Or can you monitor with scans and no drugs?

Not sure where I fit into this. I am 79 years old. In April, I was diagnosed with IDC in my right breast and ILC in my left breast. Had bilateral lumpectomies in early July. As well as capsulectomies and reconstruction at the same time. Yesterday I completed the last of five consecutive radiation treatments. My oncologist suggested I start Letrozole Nov 1, allowing my body some healing time. I begin a PT regime next week, with the hope that additional exercise will offset the possible tiredness and bone loss side effects, as well as possible depression. I think the positives of Letrozole (keeping cancer at bay and keeping me alive!!) will/do outweigh the possible side effects. I usually walk 2.5 - 5 miles a day, most days. Strength training will aid this - I hope! Does anyone have experience with Letrozole that they're willing to share?

Unfortunately mine is very negative. I'm 81 is pretty good shape (walking and strength training) but I do have peripheral neuropathy in my legs and was scheduled to start radiation in 2 1/2 weeks. Two weeks ago I started Letrozole (took only 2/3 of a pill) and quit after 3 days. Besides an upflair of my neuropathy which was being perfectly controlled, horrible pain in earlobes of all places, pain in jaw, some joint pain which was bearable, but numbness in neck, which has now spread to lips and checks.

But a friend had no side effects. It's very individual.

Unfortunately mine is very negative. I'm 81 is pretty good shape (walking and strength training) but I do have peripheral neuropathy in my legs and was scheduled to start radiation in 2 1/2 weeks. Two weeks ago I started Letrozole (took only 2/3 of a pill) and quit after 3 days. Besides an upflair of my neuropathy which was being perfectly controlled, horrible pain in earlobes of all places, pain in jaw, some joint pain which was bearable, but numbness in neck, which has now spread to lips and checks.

But a friend had no side effects. It's very individual.

I included the link so that people can read the whole article and am glad that you did. In a few places the author noted where the results of both drugs v. letrozole and a placebo or letrozole alone "were not statistically significant." I assume that it is that, that points to a lack of clear benefit that led to the headline conclusion.

The authors cited the problem of missing data as you noted. But statistically-valid conclusions cannot be drawn by ignoring missing data in such a study. That would be cherry-picking data or biased outcome.

So they mentioned what they could deduce (which you excerpted) from the incomplete data but nonerheless concluded as stated in the headline. At least that's what I deduce from the seeming discrepancies.

It would be valuable to know the cause of the missing data. E.g., if people dropped out if the study and why. And why it was the missing data was "disproportionate"? One reason people drop our of studies is adverse effects. In such a case, had the people stayed in the study, several of the measure variables would have been negatively affected.

But here's one conclusion from the study and the link again for anyone interested.
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“Overall survival was numerically longer in the palbociclib-plus-letrozole arm, but the results were not statistically significant,” Dr. Finn announced. “The interpretation of overall survival is limited by the large and disproportionate percentage of patients with missing survival data [ie, lost to follow-up or censored] between the treatment arms.”

I am on letrozole and iBrance for mbc as well. I also was diagnosed with mbc with right breast and lining of my lung. I have been on this drug therapy since mid October. My first set of scans after a month show a reduction by half of my breast tumour and the fluid in my pleural has reduced by half. There are some side effects like fatigue and joint aches but I am happy with thereabouts so far. I take calcium and vitamin D supplements . I also had a problem with and count and my oncologist lowered my dosage of iBrance to 100