This trial showed that fulvestrant and everolimus worked better than fulvestrant alone or fulvestrant and vistusertib.
The research team recruited patients between 2014 and 2016, and presented the results at a conference in 2017.
Results
The women taking part were put into 1 of 4 groups at
random:
- 66 had fulvestrant alone
- 101 had fulvestrant and vistusertib every day (continuous)
- 95 had fulvestrant and vistusertib for 2 days out of every 7 (intermittent)
- 64 had fulvestrant and everolimus
The research looked at how long it was before the cancer started to grow. They found it was:
- 4.6 months for those who had fulvestrant alone
- 7.5 months for those who had fulvestrant and continuous vistusertib
- 7.6 months for those who had fulvestrant and intermittent vistusertib
- 12.1 months for those who had fulvestrant and everolimus
They also looked at how many women’s breast cancer stopped growing or got smaller and found it was:
- more than 2 out of 10 people (25%) who had fulvestrant alone
- about 3 out of 10 people (30%) who had fulvestrant and vistusertib
- just over 4 out of 10 people (41%) who had fulvestrant and everolimus
Side effects
Many of the women who took part had side effects, but some were mild or didn’t last too long.
The most common side effects for women who had vistusertib or everolimus included:
- rash
- sore mouth (stomatitis)
- weakness (asthenia)
- feeling or being sick
- diarrhoea
- loss of appetite
The group who had continuous vistusertib generally had more side effects that could be classed as severe. The most common more severe side effect in this group was a rash.
The women who had fulvestrant alone had fewer side effects than women in the other groups. And they didn’t have any that were classed as serious, they were all mild or moderate.
The side effects in this group included weakness, headache and feeling sick.
Conclusion
The research team concluded that fulvestrant and everolimus worked better than fulvestrant alone, or fulvestrant and vistusertib. And that there is no significant benefit of having vistusertib with fulvestrant.
Where this information comes from
We have based this summary on information from the research team. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists (
peer reviewed 
) but may not have been published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the research team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.