Afinitor

Afinitor is a cancer medicine used to treat the following cancers: - breast cancer that is advanced (has started to spread) in women who have been through their menopause. Afinitor is used in breast cancer that is ‘hormone receptor-positive’ (when the cancer cells have oestrogen receptors on their surface) and ‘HER2/neu negative’ (when the cancer cells do not contain high levels of the HER2/neu \[human epidermal growth factor receptor-2\] protein). Afinitor is used together with a medicine called exemestane after other treatments called ‘non-steroidal aromatase inhibitors’ have not worked; - pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (tumours of the hormone-producing cells in the pancreas) when the cancer cells are well- or moderately differentiated (which means that they can be distinguished from normal pancreas cells). It is used when the cancer is metastatic (has spread to other parts of the body) or when it cannot be surgically removed; - neuroendocrine tumours originating in the lungs or gut, when the cancer cells are well-differentiated and the cancer is metastatic or cannot be removed by surgery. - advanced renal cell carcinoma (a kidney cancer), when the cancer has worsened despite treatment with a ‘VEGF-targeted’ medicine (a type of medicine that blocks the effects of vascular endothelial growth factor proteins). Afinitor contains the active substance everolimus.