Drug News: FDA expands use of breast cancer drug Tykerb

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved use of Tykerb a breast cancer drug made by GlaxoSmithKline in combination with Femara another breast cancer drug made by Novartis.

Tykerb can be used now to treat hormone positive and HER2-positive advanced breast cancer in postmenopausal women.

Some drugs including Roche's Herceptin have been found effective in women with excess HER2 protein, which is present in normal cells, but can also be present in some breast cancer cells.

Tykerb cuts communication between tumor cells and block functions of the HER2 protein in a way the cancer growth can be slowed.

The drug was initially indicated to be used along with the chemotehrpay drug Xeloda to treat advanced breast cancer in patients  who had tried other chemotherapy drugs and Herceptin.

The FDA approval came after a study showed patients who used Tykerb and Femara in combination lived longer than those who used Femara alone.

Breast cancer is diagnosed in more than 170,000 women each year in the United States and the disease and its complications kill about 50,000 annually in the country.

By David Liu