The study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, surveyed 874 women with estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) and HER2-negative (HER2-) advanced breast cancer, who had progressed after endocrine therapy.

Participants were randomly assigned to receive imlunestrant monotherapy, the imlunestrant-abemaciclib combination, or standard endocrine therapy. The combination of imlunestrant and abemaciclib increased median progression-free survival to 9.4 months, versus 3.8 months for standard therapy.

However, imlunestrant as monotherapy only showed benefit in people with ESR1 gene mutations, achieving a median of 5.5 months, versus 3.8 months for standard therapy.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women and the second most common cancer overall in the world, with approximately 2.3 million diagnoses in 2022.

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