The Food and Drug Administration expanded the approval of Kisqali, a drug for metastatic breast cancer, to also treat patients with earlier stages of the disease, drugmaker Novartis said Tuesday.

While Verzenio, a drug in the same class, has been approved to lower the risk of early breast cancer returning, it's only for people with a very high risk of recurrence. Kisqali will be available to a much broader group of patients, whose disease may not be as aggressive at the time of diagnosis, Novartis said.

The Food and Drug Administration expanded the approval of Kisqali, a drug for metastatic breast cancer, to also treat patients with earlier stages of the disease. NBC News' Kathy Park speaks to a woman who took the drug while it was in clinical trials and is now cancer free.

Novartis AG’s breast cancer drug helped prevent the disease coming back a year after treatment had ended, in new data that will be closely compared with a rival product from Eli Lilly.

The breast cancer drug Kisqali has received FDA approval to reduce cases of cancer recurrence. The drug was found to reduce the chances of a patient's breast cancer coming back by 25%.

Novartis NVS announced that the FDA has approved breast cancer drug Kisqali (ribociclib) for a broader population. The regulatory body approved Kisqali in combination with an aromatase inhibitor (AI) for the adjuvant treatment of people with hormone receptor-positive/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HR+/HER2-) stage II and III early breast cancer (EBC) at high risk of recurrence,