September 5, 2007 – According to Boston Scientific Corp., results from the TAXUS WOMAN study, a gender specific analysis of the TAXUS II, IV, V and VI trials assessing the efficacy data of the TAXUS paclitaxel-eluting coronary stent in women undergoing coronary revascularization, found paclitaxel-eluting stents to have similar clinical outcomes in women and men, despite the higher risk profile in women patients.
The study Results of the analysis of the TAXUS WOMAN study were released at the annual European Society of Cardiology Congress in Vienna, Austria. According to Ghada Mikhail, M.D., consultant cardiologist, St Mary's Hospital Trust, London, U.K., the findings demonstrate that the TAXUS paclitaxel-eluting coronary stent works equally well in women, maintaining its anti-restenotic efficacy advantages and positive safety profile relative to bare-metal stents.
The TAXUS II, IV, V and VI trials evaluated the performance of the TAXUS paclitaxel-eluting stent (PES) compared to a bare-metal stent (BMS) control in patients with coronary artery disease. The TAXUS WOMAN study analyzed pooled results of the women enrolled in these TAXUS trials and compared them with the corresponding endpoints in men.
Results show that the TAXUS Stent maintained its advantage in preventing repeat procedures compared to the bare-metal stent control, while showing no significant differences in outcomes based on gender. At one year, the unadjusted rate of target lesion revascularization (TLR) in the PES-treated group was 8.1 percent in women versus 6.7 percent in men (p=0.297), while in the BMS-treated group, the unadjusted TLR rate at one year was 17.5 percent in women versus 16.4 percent in men (p=0.613). At three years, the data showed continued low TLR rates in both women and men treated with PES (10.7% in women versus 8.8% in men, with no difference between men and women, p=0.301).
For more information: www.bostonscientific.com