foodconsumer.org: Combo treatment better for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer

Combo treatment better for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer
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admin on 12/13/2009 14:52:00
 
By Jimmy downs
Lapatinib plus trastuzumab are better than lapatinib alone at extending the
lives of patients with HER2-positive breast cancer, according to a new study
presented at the CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
Kimberly Blackwell, M.D., associate professor of medicine at Duke University
Medical Center found the combo treatment extended the lives of patients who had
advanced HER2 positive breast cancer more than 4 months.
The results came from a large phase III clinical trial involving 296 patients
with metastatic breast cancer. Patients were assigned either lapatinib (also
known as Tykerb) alone or lapatinib plus trastuzumab (Herceptin) once a day.
Neither treatment could stop the metastatic breast cancer from spreading.  Half
of the participants were given the combo treatment after 4 weeks of treatment
with lapatinib.
The researchers found the average overall survival for patients who received the
treatment with lapatinib plus trastuzumab was 60.7 weeks compared to 41.4 weeks
for those who took lapatinib alone.
Prognosis of advanced or metastatic breast cancer is very poor and the
conventional treatments cannot help the patients enough.  A good drug may give
some extra time to a patient, but it is no cure.
Breast cancer is diagnosed in more than 170,000 Americans each year in the U.S.
and the disease and its complications kill about 50,000 annually.