Roche confirms Herceptin increases survival
30 May 2008 00:00 in Pharmaceutical Company Product News
Women with HER2-positive aggressive metastatic breast cancer experience a cessation of cancer progression for almost three additional months when Herceptin is combined with chemotherapy, the company says.
The final analysis of a phase III study into women who required additional treatment after their breast cancer progressed during previous Herceptin (trastuzumab) treatment.
Its key findings included that Herceptin plus Xeloda prolonged survival without progression of the cancer by almost three months to 8.2 months when compared to chemotherapy administered on its own.
The continuation of Herceptin also increased the percentage of women responding to treatments almost twofold, from 27 per cent to 48 per cent.
Lead investigator Professor von Minckwitz of University Women's Hospital, Frankfurt, said the positive results for women were "rewarding".
"The GBG-26 study results confirm that trastuzumab continues to target and shrink the cancer even beyond progression when combined with another chemotherapy."
However the company noted that breast cancer is still in incurable disease.
HER2 is described by Cancer Help UK as a protein that helps cells to reproduce and notes that men also get breast cancer that can be treated with Herceptin.
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