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Anticancer Punch Confirmed For New Drug
UPI Correspondent West Palm Beach (UPI) Jan 04, 2007 Doctors said Thursday new results from an ongoing study confirms that Herceptin (trastuzumab) prevents recurrence of breast cancer and improves survival in a specific group of women treated for the disease. "The survival benefit that has emerged over such a short period -- about three years -- emphasizes the potential of this approach and underlines the importance of developing further specific targeted therapies in breast and other cancers," said Ian Smith, professor of cancer medicine at the Royal Marsden Hospital, London. In an article that will be published this week in the medical journal "The Lancet", Smith reported the results of adding Herceptin to the treatment regimen of women with breast cancer: Herceptin therapy for one year, followed by surgery and a standard regimen of chemotherapy. Herceptin targets a specific form of breast cancer called HER2-receptor positive disease. In this form of cancer -- a type that affects about 15 percent to 25 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer -- HER2-receptors are overexpressed and are believed to increase the risk of recurrence. Herceptin was designed to specifically attack this form of disease by reducing HER2 overexpression. In the Herceptin Adjuvant Trial (HERA), 1,703 women were randomly assigned to receive the drug daily for one year after surgery and chemotherapy. Another 1,698 women also underwent surgery and standard chemotherapy, but they were assigned to be closely observed after those treatments. They were not given Herceptin. In the Lancet paper, Smith reported that 90 women died if they were in the observation group, compared with 59 deaths among women who were on Herceptin, corresponding to an absolute survival benefit of 2.7 percent after three years of follow-up. "Our results indicate that trastuzumab shows a significant overall survival benefit in early breast cancer over observation alone after chemotherapy," Smith said. "The HERA results confirm what we have seen in other studies," William Gradishar, professor of medicine at Northwestern University, Chicago, told United Press International. "Herceptin reduces the risk of breast cancer recurrence in women with HER2 overexpression and improves survival. All of the trials have shown that adding Herceptin improves outcomes." Gradishar said that trials also have shown that the improvement in survival does come with a small risk of heart problems. Smith's trial results also indicated that women on Herceptin may have an increased risk of developing heart failure. "The question that has not been answered with these results," Gradishar said, "is how long a woman should take Herceptin." He noted that a third part of the trial includes a group of women who will be taking Herceptin for two years following surgery and standard chemotherapy. The outcomes in that part of the trial have not yet been reported. Aside from the risk of heart disease -- estimated to be around 5 percent of patients -- in certain women taking chemotherapy and Herceptin, the drug is costly. In an editorial that accompanies Smith's Lancet article, Daniel Hind, a research associate in health economics at the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom, suggested that the costs of treating patients with Herceptin fall within usually acceptable levels of cost effectiveness -- a societal cost of about $40,000 for quality year of life saved.
Source: United Press International Related Links Royal Marsden Hospital Hospital and Medical News at InternDaily.com Hospital and Medical News at InternDaily.com
Lung-Cancer Gene Signature Discovered
West Palm Beach (UPI) Jan 03, 2007Researchers said Wednesday they have identified a five-gene profile signature that could give doctors strong clues about the chances a patient has of surviving lung cancer. When the genetic profile indicates a good prognosis, lung-cancer patients whose disease is detected early have better than an 85-percent chance of survival after four years, compared with patients who have a high-risk profile -- their chances of living four years are less than 40 percent. |
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