Results of a study of Herceptin have shown that, when combined with chemotherapy, the drug has let to complete disappearance of tumor in the breast or lymph nodes in three times as many women as with chemotherapy alone.
Prof. Dr. med. Wolfgang Eiermann, Medical Director of the Red Cross Women’s Hospital in Munich, Germany stated “Herceptin has been proven to extend lives across the spectrum of HER2-positive disease, so these latest findings will be welcome news for the unfortunate few with inflammatory breast cancer, which is an especially devastating form of the disease.”
HER2-positive disease is found in up to 30% of women diagnosed with breast cancer and the tumors associated with HER2 are fast growing with a high likelihood of reoccurence. The positive effect of Herceptin is expected to reduce the number of complete mastectomies and lead to improved survival.
Herceptin was approved for use in the EU for advanced HER2-positive breast cancer in 2000 and early HER2-positive cancer in 2006. Herceptin is currently marketed in the U.S. by Genentech (NYSE:DNA), in Japan by Chugai (TYO:4519) and internationally by Roche (OTC:RHHBY)
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