Breast cancer drug Herceptin a 'stunner'

According to the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) the first trials of the breast cancer drug, Herceptin, tested on women with early stage disease are "simply stunning".

Apparently the results have been declared "revolutionary and a dramatic and perhaps permanent perturbation in the natural history of the disease, maybe even a cure."

This is praise indeed as medical journals rarely speak of a cure for cancer.

It seems that women treated with Herceptin have a 46 per cent reduced risk of their breast cancer returning.

The drug appears to work on patients sensitive to the protein HER II who number 8,000 to 10,000 in the UK, or 20 to 25 per cent of those newly diagnosed with the disease.

Although the headline results were presented at a conference in Orlando, Florida, last May, when U.S. specialists gave the researchers a standing ovation, they are published in full for the first time this week.

The journal declares that no drug, not even tamoxifen the gold standard in breast cancer for more than 30 years, has shown such a significant reduction in risk in so short a time (one to two-and-a-half years).

Breast cancer charities were of course jubilant and Jeremy Hughes, chief executive of Breakthrough Breast Cancer says it is one of the biggest breakthroughs in breast cancer treatment.

The research on Herceptin triggered a worldwide demand for the drug even before it was licensed for early breast cancer, it is currently licensed only for advanced breast cancer that has spread to other organs.

Last month, a nurse, Barbara Clark, shamed Somerset Primary Care Trust into providing the drug, which costs around £20,000 for a year's treatment, after threatening to take her case to the European Court of Human Rights.

Following Ms Clark's victory, Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, pledged Herceptin would be available to all newly diagnosed patients with breast cancer who were suitable for it. Existing patients would have to apply for funding to their health authorities on a case by case basis the health department said.

Yesterday, the South West Peninsula Health authority became the first to agree to pay for Herceptin for more than 100 existing patients in Devon and Cornwall.

Cancer charities are now calling on the Government to order other health authorities to do the same.

The trials of the drug involved 3,000 women in the U.S. and 5,000 women in 39 other countries who were randomly allocated treatment with Herceptin after chemotherapy.

Martine Piccart, who led the non-U.S. study and is chair of the Breast International Group, says they cannot stress enough how crucial it is that all patients breast tumours are tested appropriately at initial diagnosis and, if patients are HER II positive, that they have access to Herceptin.

The discovery that Herceptin only works in certain women demonstrates that breast cancer is not one but several diseases and marks a new era in cancer research and the way drugs are being designed to combat them.

http://content.nejm.org/