Drug Halves Breast Cancer Relapse Rate for Some
October 24, 2005
From CNN Health - October 20, 2005 09:15
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Thursday, October 20, 2005; Posted: 11:29 a.m. EDT (15:29 GMT)
(AP) -- Many doctors and patients are embracing a drug described as perhaps the most powerful cancer medicine in a decade, taking their cue from recent studies showing it can halve the risk of relapse for a very aggressive form of breast cancer.
Several experts used words like "revolutionary," "stunning" and "jaw-dropping" to describe the findings on the impact of the drug, Herceptin. Some even talked of a "cure" for a considerable number of women.
"The strength of the evidence is so overwhelming at this point that it would be almost impossible to withhold this drug from the appropriate group of patients," said Dr. Gabriel Hortobagyi, of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. He is president-elect of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
Others, while excited about the findings, said women who take the drug must be watched for years more to get a better idea how many will benefit. "I think it's way too soon to talk about a cure," said Debbie Saslow, director of the breast cancer section of the American Cancer Society.
The drug, Herceptin, targets only diseased cells and is already used for advanced cancer. But in three studies involving thousands of women with early-stage disease, it cut the risk of a relapse in half.
The drug, made by Genentech, does not help everyone, though. For one thing, it is only for the estimated 20 percent of patients whose breast tumors churn out too much of a protein known as HER2. In the recent studies, the drug was used along with standard treatments, including surgery and chemotherapy. Even then, some patients relapsed.
