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# Combo treatment better for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/her2-positive_breast_cancer_1312090957/
- Published: 2009-12-13T09:52:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-15T12:36:24.000Z
- Description: In a phase III trial of 296 patients with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer, average overall survival reached 60.7 weeks on lapatinib plus trastuzumab against 41.4 weeks on lapatinib alone. Neither regimen stopped the cancer spreading.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Drug, Health News, #vivvo-import

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.