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Herceptin Benefits Early Breast Cancer Sufferers

Giving women with a certain type of breast cancer Herceptin for one year following standard chemotherapy may improve their survival, according to an article in this week's issue of The Lancet.

Around 15-25% of women with early breast cancer have a type called HER2-receptor positive disease. Herceptin has been shown to reduce the risk of disease recurrence in women with HER2-positive early breast cancer.

In the study, Ian Smith of the Royal Marsden Hospital in London and colleagues assessed the effect of the drug on overall survival after a two year follow-up.

During the trial 1,703 women were randomised to receive Herceptin for one year after surgery and chemotherapy and 1,698 women were assigned to the control group (observation only). They found that more deaths occurred in the observation group than in the drug group (90 vs 59), which corresponds to a survival benefit of 2.7% after 3 years. There were more serious side effects in the Herceptin group than in the observation group.

Herceptin has been linked to a number of complications suffered by breast cancer patients, notably with regard to heart problems. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommends all women should receive tests on how well their heart is working before being prescribed the drug.

The Herceptin website states that ‘treatment can result in reduced heart function and congestive heart failure. The risk of these heart problems was higher in people who received both Herceptin and a certain type of chemotherapy (anthracycline). Your doctor may need to stop or strongly consider stopping Herceptin if you have a significant drop in your heart function.’

Despite the risks however, Dr Smith believes that the results of his study indicate that Herceptin "shows a significant overall survival benefit in early breast cancer over observation alone after chemotherapy,” he says.

“The survival benefit that has emerged over such a short period emphasises the potential of this approach and underlines the importance of developing further specific targeted therapies in breast and other cancers.”

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