Breast Cancer Drugs

On March 13, the FDA approved a new drug that in recent clinical trials, delayed the spread of advanced breast cancer who were no longer showing any reaction to Hereceptin. Hereceptin is a drug which affectively combats cancerous tumors filled with too much HER-2 protein.

The new drug called Tykerb, couple with chemotherapy, has show in clinical trials to do a better job of fighting breast cancer than chemo alone.

This was a large study and it backs up other reports which also seem to show a benefit from Raloxifene in terms of breast cancer in women after the menopause. The latter point here may be important - after the menopause.

I hope the results of this study will save the lives of the nearly 10,000 women who die each year from this type of cancer. According to HealthDay, ?The drug was tested in a trial involving 400 women with advanced or metastatic breast cancer that was HER2 positive. Common side effects included diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and rash. A small percentage of participants also had a decrease in heart function that may have been characterized by shortness of breath.?

Cancer experts are encouraged by the results but warn that this trial was conducted in a particular group of postmenopausal women with heart disease and that therefore the results may not necessarily be applicable to other women - and further research will be needed to confirm the findings. Some commentators have also raised worries that this study was primarily designed to investigate the effects of raloxifene in reducing the risk of heart disease - which it didn't do. They fear that the number of women in the trial might not have been big enough to properly assess breast cancer risks.