"Smart bomb" cancer therapy combo effective

Experts have more good news on the breast cancer front; they say they by using a combination of therapies it may be possible to extend the lives of thousands of women with advanced breast cancer.

High profile breast cancer drug Herceptin produced by Genentech Inc. has already dramatically extended the lives of many patients but in quite a few it has a limited use and eventually becomes ineffective.

Doctors say that a new drug Tykerb, made by the UK firm GlaxoSmithKline, could be even more effective than Herceptin because it attacks tumours on two fronts; it not only targets HER2, a protein that stimulates the growth of breast cancers, it also blocks another growth factor linked to the spread of the disease.

Experts believe the "smart bomb" cancer drugs that target specific proteins and avoid the indiscriminate cell destruction of chemotherapy may be the way forward in treating cancer patients.

According to researchers, women taking Tykerb are twice as likely to survive as those receiving chemotherapy.

They say Tykerb doubled the time of survival of women with advanced breast cancer from four to eight months.

An international study of its effects, based on 321 women, was suspended in April because the early results seen were so spectacular.

Cancer specialists have described the results as a breakthrough.

Dr. Jose Baselga, chief of medical oncology service at Vall d'Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona, Spain also says that early studies show that combining targeted treatments such as Herceptin with Tykerb, may be helpful in patients who do not respond to Herceptin alone.

Targeted therapies act like smart bombs by zapping deadly cancer cells while leaving healthy cells in tact, unlike chemotherapy which kills both healthy and unhealthy cells.

Using Herceptin and Tykerb together is just one of many drug combinations that could improve on results seen with existing targeted therapies such as colon cancer drug Erbitux and lung cancer drug Tarceva.

Baselga says so far all the chemical models suggest that combinations will be superior to current therapies, though the data still has to prove it.

Promising results from a mid-stage trial on lung cancer patients of kidney cancer drug Sutent. has also come up with good results and it is now about to be tested in combination with Tarceva.

The majority of experts hold the belief that except in very rare instances, tumours are driven by multiple pathways and a multi-targeted approach is the most sensible.

Tykerb has already been fast-tracked in America for some types of breast cancer and a licence in the UK is expected to be granted early next year.

The results of this research was presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology congress in Atlanta.