SAN ANTONIO, Texas, USA (AP) – New drug combinations help women with breast cancer in recent manifestation. The use of two drugs that attack tumors more accurately than doubled the number of women whose cancer disappeared in comparison with those who received one, doctors said.
It was the first trial of Herceptin and Tykerb together for the disease in its early stages. They attack a protein called HER-2 that is produced over a quarter of all breast cancer. Herceptin blocks the cell surface and Tykerb does it inside.
Dr. Jose Baselga, deputy director of the Cancer Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, conducted a study while working in Barcelona which tested these drugs alone and in combination on 455 patients who were also delivered paclitaxel chemotherapy.
The patients were treated for about four months before undergoing surgery to remove their tumors and nine months later. Doctors have been testing drugs before surgery to reduce fear and make less drastic operations, and to get a feel for whether they help the patient.
Just over half of women who received Herceptin and Tykerb not show signs of invasive cancer after surgery, compared with 25% to 30% of those receiving one.
Tykerb had more side effects, especially diarrhea. But the main side effect of combination therapy is its cost: the cost pill Tykerb 5,000 to $ 6,000 per month. Herceptin costs more than $ 4,000 per month in addition to what doctors charge.
“The opportunity we have here is to increase the number of patients who are cured” and avoid more treatments that can cost more, said Balsega.
Dr. Neil Spector, Duke Cancer Institute, said the cost is a real consideration. ” But he added that the results were “worthy of enthusiasm” and that the future of cancer is as it approaches that use specific drugs to tumors of patients.
GlaxoSmithKline PLC based in Britain produces Tykerb, and Genentech, California, now part of the Swiss company Roche, manufactures Herceptin.
A second study in Germany compared the two drugs in 600 women with breast cancer in initial stage also received regular treatment for six months of chemotherapy before surgery. Herceptin won: 31% saw their tumors disappear compared with 22% for Tykerb.
The studies were reported Friday in the Breast Cancer Symposium in San Antonio.
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