FDA approves new breast cancer treatment

SILVER SPRING, Md. The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new treatment for breast cancer, the agency said Monday.

The FDA approved Eisai’s Halaven (eribulin mesylate) for patients with breast cancer that has spread and who have received at least two chemotherapy regimens for the disease in its late stages. More than 200,000 women will be diagnosed this year with breast cancer, and nearly 40,000 will die from it, making it the second leading cause of cancer-related death among women, according to the National Cancer Institute.

The drug, derived from a compound present in the sea sponge Halichondria okadai, is an injectable therapy believed to work by inhibiting the growth of cancer cells.