LETROZOLE

5.2 Cholesterol

5.3 Hepatic Impairment

5.4 Fatigue and Dizziness

5.5 Laboratory Test Abnormalities

6 ADVERSE REACTIONS

• Bone effects [see Warnings and Precautions (5.1)]
• Increases in cholesterol [see Warnings and Precautions (5.2)]

Because clinical trials are conducted under widely varying conditions, adverse reactions rates observed in the clinical trials of a drug cannot be directly compared to rates in the clinical trials of another drug and may not reflect the rates observed in practice.

6.1 Adjuvant Treatment of Early Breast Cancer

Table 1: Patients with Adverse Reactions (CTC Grades 1-4, Irrespective of Relationship to Study Drug) in the Adjuvant Study – Monotherapy Arms Analysis (Median Follow-up 73 Months; Median Treatment 60 Months)

¹ During study treatment, based on Safety Monotherapy population

² Any time after randomization, including post treatment follow-up

³ Excluding women who had undergone hysterectomy before study entry

6.2 Extended Adjuvant Treatment of Early Breast Cancer, Median Treatment Duration of 24 Months

6.3 Updated Analysis, Extended Adjuvant Treatment of Early Breast Cancer, Median Treatment Duration of 60 Months

6.4 First-Line Treatment of Advanced Breast Cancer

6.5 Second- Line Treatment of Advanced Breast Cancer

² Includes musculoskeletal pain, skeletal pain, back pain, arm pain, leg pain

³ Includes rash, erythematous rash, maculopapular rash, psoriasiform rash, vesicular rash

6.6 First and Second-Line Treatment of Advanced Breast Cancer

6.7 Postmarketing Experience

7 DRUG INTERACTIONS

8 USE IN SPECIFIC POPULATIONS

8.1 Pregnancy

8.3 Nursing Mothers

8.4 Pediatric Use

8.5 Geriatric Use

10 OVERDOSAGE

11 DESCRIPTION

12 CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY

12.1 Mechanism of Action

12.2 Pharmacodynamics

12.3 Pharmacokinetics

Absorption and Distribution:  Letrozole is rapidly and completely absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract and absorption is not affected by food. It is metabolized slowly to an inactive metabolite whose glucuronide conjugate is excreted renally, representing the major clearance pathway. About 90% of radiolabeled letrozole is recovered in urine. Letrozole’s terminal elimination half-life is about 2 days and steady-state plasma concentration after daily 2.5 mg dosing is reached in 2-6 weeks. Plasma concentrations at steady state are 1.5 to 2 times higher than predicted from the concentrations measured after a single dose, indicating a slight non-linearity in the pharmacokinetics of letrozole upon daily administration of 2.5 mg. These steady-state levels are maintained over extended periods, however, and continuous accumulation of letrozole does not occur. Letrozole is weakly protein bound and has a large volume of distribution (approximately 1.9 L/kg).

Metabolism and Excretion:  Metabolism to a pharmacologically-inactive carbinol metabolite (4,4'-methanol-bisbenzonitrile) and renal excretion of the glucuronide conjugate of this metabolite is the major pathway of letrozole clearance. Of the radiolabel recovered in urine, at least 75% was the glucuronide of the carbinol metabolite, about 9% was two unidentified metabolites, and 6% was unchanged letrozole.

In human microsomes with specific CYP isozyme activity, CYP3A4 metabolized letrozole to the carbinol metabolite while CYP2A6 formed both this metabolite and its ketone analog. In human liver microsomes, letrozole strongly inhibited CYP2A6 and moderately inhibited CYP2C19.

Pediatric, Geriatric and Race:  In the study populations (adults ranging in age from 35 to >80 years), no change in pharmacokinetic parameters was observed with increasing age. Differences in letrozole pharmacokinetics between adult and pediatric populations have not been studied. Differences in letrozole pharmacokinetics due to race have not been studied.

Renal Impairment:  In a study of volunteers with varying renal function (24-hour creatinine clearance: 9-116 mL/min), no effect of renal function on the pharmacokinetics of single doses of 2.5 mg of letrozole tablets was found. In addition, in a study of 347 patients with advanced breast cancer, about half of whom received 2.5 mg letrozole tablets and half 0.5 mg letrozole tablets, renal impairment (calculated creatinine clearance: 20-50 mL/min) did not affect steady-state plasma letrozole concentrations.

13 NONCLINICAL TOXICOLOGY

13.1 Carcinogenesis, Mutagenesis , Impairment Of Fertility

Letrozole administered to young (postnatal day 7) rats for 12 weeks duration at 0.003, 0.03, 0.3 mg/kg/day by oral gavage, resulted in adverse skeletal/growth effects (bone maturation, bone mineral density) and neuroendocrine and reproductive developmental perturbations of the hypothalamic-pituitary axis at exposures less than exposure anticipated at the clinical dose of 2.5 mg/day.  Decreased fertility was accompanied by hypertrophy of the hypophysis and testicular changes that included degeneration of the seminiferous tubular epithelium and atrophy of the female reproductive tract.  Young rats in this study were allowed to recover following discontinuation of letrozole treatment for 42 days.  Histopathological changes were not reversible at clinically relevant exposures.

13.2 Animal Pharmacology and/or Toxicology

14 CLINICAL STUDIES

14.1 Updated Adjuvant Treatment of Early Breast Cancer

The study in the adjuvant setting, BIG 1-98 was designed to answer two primary questions: whether letrozole tablets for 5 years were superior to tamoxifen for 5 years (Primary Core Analysis) and whether switching endocrine treatments at 2 years was superior to continuing the same agent for a total of 5 years (Sequential Treatments Analysis). Selected baseline characteristics for the study population are shown in Table 5.

The primary endpoint of this trial was disease-free survival (DFS) (i.e., interval between randomization and earliest occurrence of a local, regional, or distant recurrence, or invasive contralateral breast cancer, or death from any cause). The secondary endpoints were overall survival (OS), systemic disease-free survival (SDFS), invasive contralateral breast cancer, time to breast cancer recurrence (TBR) and time to distant metastasis (TDM).

The Primary Core Analysis (PCA) included all patients and all follow-up in the monotherapy arms in both randomization options, but follow-up in the two sequential treatments arms was truncated 30 days after switching treatments. The PCA was conducted at a median treatment duration of 24 months and a median follow-up of 26 months. Letrozole tablets were superior to tamoxifen in all endpoints except overall survival and contralateral breast cancer [e.g., DFS: hazard ratio, HR 0.79; 95% CI (0.68, 0.92); P=0.002; SDFS: HR 0.83; 95% CI (0.70, 0.97); TDM: HR 0.73; 95% CI (0.60, 0.88); OS: HR 0.86; 95% CI (0.70, 1.06). 

In 2005, based on recommendations by the independent Data Monitoring Committee, the tamoxifen arms were unblinded and patients were allowed to complete initial adjuvant therapy with letrozole tablets (if they had received tamoxifen for at least 2 years) or to start extended adjuvant treatment with letrozole tablets (if they had received tamoxifen for at least 4.5 years) if they remained alive and disease-free. In total, 632 patients crossed to letrozole tablets or another aromatase inhibitor. Approximately 70% (448) of these 632 patients crossed to letrozole tablets to complete initial adjuvant therapy and most of these crossed in years 3 to 4. All of these patients were in Option 1. A total of 184 patients started extended adjuvant therapy with letrozole tablets (172 patients) or with another aromatase inhibitor (12 patients). To explore the impact of this selective crossover, results from analyses censoring follow-up at the date of the selective crossover (in the tamoxifen arm) are presented for the Monotherapy Arms Analysis (MAA).

The PCA allowed the results of letrozole tablets for 5 years compared with tamoxifen for 5 years to be reported in 2005 after a median follow-up of only 26 months. The design of the PCA is not optimal to evaluate the effect of letrozole tablets after a longer time (because follow-up was truncated in two arms at around 25 months). The Monotherapy Arms Analysis (ignoring the two sequential treatment arms) provided follow-up equally as long in each treatment and did not over-emphasize early recurrences as the PCA did. The MAA thus provides the clinically appropriate updated efficacy results in answer to the first primary question, despite the confounding of the tamoxifen reference arm by the selective crossover to letrozole tablets. The updated results for the MAA are summarized in Table 6. Median follow-up for this analysis is 73 months.

The Sequential Treatments Analysis (STA) addresses the second primary question of the study. The primary analysis for the Sequential Treatments Analysis (STA) was from switch (or equivalent time-point in monotherapy arms) + 30 days (STA-S) with a two-sided test applied to each pair-wise comparison at the 2.5% level. Additional analyses were conducted from randomization (STA-R) but these comparisons (added in light of changing medical practice) were under-powered for efficacy.

 Table 6: Updated Adjuvant Study Results - Monotherapy Arms Analysis

(Median Follow-up 73 Months)

Figure 1 shows the Kaplan-Meier curves for Disease-Free Survival Monotherapy Analysis

Figure 1 Disease-Free Survival (Median follow-up 73 months, ITT Approach)

The medians of overall survival for both arms were not reached for the Monotherapy Arms Analysis (MAA). There was no statistically significant difference in overall survival. The hazard ratio for survival in the letrozole tablets arm compared to the tamoxifen arm was 0.87, with 95% CI (0.75, 1.02) (see Table 6).

There were no significant differences in DFS, OS, SDFS, and Distant DFS from switch in the Sequential Treatments Analysis with respect to either monotherapy (e.g., [Tamoxifen 2 years followed by] letrozole tablets 3 years versus tamoxifen beyond 2 years, DFS HR 0.89; 97.5% CI 0.68, 1.15 and [letrozole tablets 2 years followed by] tamoxifen 3 years versus letrozole tablets beyond 2 years, DFS HR 0.93; 97.5% CI 0.71, 1.22).

There were no significant differences in DFS, OS, SDFS, and Distant DFS from randomization in the Sequential Treatments Analyses.

14.2 Extended Adjuvant Treatment of Early Breast Cancer, Median Treatment Duration of 24 Months

Table 8 shows the study results. Disease-free survival was measured as the time from randomization to the earliest event of loco-regional or distant recurrence of the primary disease or development of contralateral breast cancer or death. DFS by hormone receptor status, nodal status and adjuvant chemotherapy were similar to the overall results. Data were premature for an analysis of survival.

Table 8: Extended Adjuvant Study Results

14.3 Updated Analyses of Extended Adjuvant Treatment of Early Breast Cancer, Median Treatment Duration of 60 Months

Table 9:  Update of Extended Adjuvant Study Results

Updated analyses were conducted at a median follow-up of 62 months. In the letrozole tablets arm, 71% of the patients were treated for a least 3 years and 58% of patients completed at least 4.5 years of extended adjuvant treatment. After the unblinding of the study at a median follow-up of 28 months, approximately 60% of the selected patients in the placebo arm opted to switch to letrozole tablets.

14.4 First-Line Treatment of Advanced Breast Cancer

Table 11: Results of First-Line Treatment of Advanced Breast Cancer

Table 14: Efficacy by Receptor Status

14.5 Second-Line Treatment of Advanced Breast Cancer

Letrozole tablets was initially studied at doses of 0.1 mg to 5.0 mg daily in six non-comparative Phase I/II trials in 181 postmenopausal estrogen/progesterone receptor positive or unknown advanced breast cancer patients previously treated with at least antiestrogen therapy. Patients had received other hormonal therapies and also may have received cytotoxic therapy. Eight (20%) of forty patients treated with letrozole tablets 2.5 mg daily in Phase I/II trials achieved an objective tumor response (complete or partial response).

Two large randomized, controlled, multinational (predominantly European) trials were conducted in patients with advanced breast cancer who had progressed despite antiestrogen therapy. Patients were randomized to letrozole tablets 0.5 mg daily, letrozole tablets 2.5 mg daily, or a comparator (megestrol acetate 160 mg daily in one study; and aminoglutethimide 250 mg b.i.d. with corticosteroid supplementation in the other study). In each study over 60% of the patients had received therapeutic antiestrogens, and about one-fifth of these patients had had an objective response. The megestrol acetate controlled study was double-blind; the other study was open label. Selected baseline characteristics for each study are shown in Table 15.

 Table 15: Selected Study Population Demographics

Confirmed objective tumor response (complete response plus partial response) was the primary endpoint of the trials. Responses were measured according to the Union Internationale Contre le Cancer (UICC) criteria and verified by independent, blinded review. All responses were confirmed by a second evaluation 4-12 weeks after the documentation of the initial response.

Table 16 shows the results for the first trial, with a minimum follow-up of 15 months, that compared letrozole tablets 0.5 mg, letrozole tablets 2.5 mg, and megestrol acetate 160 mg daily. (All analyses are unadjusted.)

Table 16: Megestrol Acetate Study Results

The results for the study comparing letrozole tablets to aminoglutethimide, with a minimum follow-up of 9 months, are shown in Table 17. (Unadjusted analyses are used.)

Table 17: Aminoglutethimide Study Results

 *two-sided P-value

16 HOW SUPPLIED/STORAGE AND HANDLING

17 PATIENT COUNSELING INFORMATION

Letrozole tablets 2.5 mg-Bottle of 30 tablets

Letrozole tablets 2.5 mg-Bottle of 1000 tablets