Revolutionary drug offers hope to patients suffering advanced breast cancer

Published on Sunday 1 June 2008 22:23

A NEW cousin of the controversial drug Herceptin has opened yet another door to the treatment of breast cancer.

Like Herceptin, the drug Pertuzumab targets the HER-2 gene found in 20 per cent of breast cancer patients. But while Herceptin blocks a molecular "switch" that promotes cancer growth, the new drug stops the switch from being there in the first place.

No other drug before it has employed the same mode of action.

Results from a "phase two" trial in which Pertuzumab was used to treat patients with advanced cancer proved promising: almost a quarter of the 66 patients saw their tumours disappear or shrink. In 8 per cent of cases, the cancer effectively vanished.

For a further 25 per cent of patients, cancers which had been progressing were stabilised for at least six months.

All the patients had reached a stage in their illness where their disease was progressing despite treatment with Herceptin. Pertuzumab was provided as an additional therapy. The study, done at Mount Vernon Hospital, London, was announced at the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago.