Novartis reports that Kisqali added to standard hormone therapy reduced death risk by 19% after six years in early-stage breast cancer patients. At six years, 91.9% of Kisqali patients were alive versus 89.7% on hormone therapy alone. The survival benefit continued growing even after patients had been off Kisqali for more than three years on average. Dennis Slamon will present the NATALEE study results on October 25, 2026 at the European Society for Medical Oncology meeting in Madrid.
Kisqali six-year survival data
- ▪Novartis AG manufactures the breast cancer pill Kisqali
- ▪The gap in survival rates between Kisqali patients and hormone therapy alone patients widened from 1.2 percentage points a year earlier to the current difference of 2.1 percentage points at six years
- ▪Adding Kisqali to standard hormone therapy reduced the risk of death by about 19% after six years in patients with a common form of early-stage breast cancer
- ▪The survival benefit of Kisqali seen in the NATALEE study continued to grow even though patients had been off Kisqali for more than three years on average
- ▪At six years, 91.9% of patients who received Kisqali were alive, compared with 89.7% of those given hormone therapy alone
NATALEE study results
- ▪Dennis Slamon will present the NATALEE study results on October 23, 2026 at the European Society for Medical Oncology meeting in Madrid
- ▪The difference between Kisqali patients and hormone therapy alone patients in the share of NATALEE study patients who remained free of invasive disease grew to 5.3 percentage points from 4.1 percentage points
- ▪Dennis Slamon is professor of medicine and chief of Hematology-Oncology at UCLA
- ▪The NATALEE study showed that Kisqali reduced the risk of cancer returning in early-stage breast cancer patients
- ▪Dennis Slamon is the lead author of the NATALEE study on Kisqali for early-stage breast cancer
Early-stage treatment implications
- ▪Dennis Slamon stated that the six-year survival data from the NATALEE study will change how physicians think about Kisqali for early-stage breast cancer treatment
- ▪Dennis Slamon stated that the increasing benefit of Kisqali over time for both survival and recurrence rate is a manifestation of the fact that Kisqali will have a long-term effect
- ▪Kisqali is already approved to treat early-stage breast cancer patients after their tumors have been removed, when the goal is to stop the cancer from coming back
Broader patient eligibility
- ▪The NATALEE study included patients whose cancer hadn't spread to the lymph nodes, and the results showed they benefited from Kisqali as well
- ▪Dennis Slamon stated that the inclusivity of the NATALEE trial has shown that Kisqali can benefit a large swath of the important group of early-stage breast cancer patients
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