Everolimus

The drug is everolimus, an mTOR inhibitor, added to an aromatase inhibitor (exemestane, known as Aromacin). The months that it “seems” to buy are time until the cancer worsens. This is an important issue because it can be confused with survival (i.e., how long a patient lives) but it is actually not (yet) known to prolong this. It also has some real, but manageable toxicities. It represents confirmation that inhibition of mTOR can be clinically effective but the relative value of this approach and its optimal implementation remains to be more fully determined.