Promising New Treatment for Advanced Breast Cancer
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Ingram Publishing/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Nearly one in five women with breast cancer will have a form of the disease termed “HER-2 positive,” a type associated with more aggressive cancer.
Now, a new treatment regimen tested in a phase three trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows promising results, extending the lives of women taking it by 15.7 months compared to those taking the standard treatment.
The regimen involves adding a third drug called Pertuzumab to the currently used combo of the cancer drugs Trastuzumab and Docetaxel.
Researchers looked at about 800 women with advanced disease for who a prior treatment had already failed.
When researchers compared the women taking this three-drug combo to those taking the standard two-drug combo, those taking the additional drug survived 56.5 months on average, compared to 40.8 months for women taking only the two drugs.
Moreover, researchers said that side effects and adverse events did not increase or change significantly in the Pertuzumab group.
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