Early stage Breast Cancer benefit from Herceptin and chemotherapy

Treating women with early stage Breast Cancer using a combination of chemotherapy and the molecularly targeted drug Herceptin (trastuzumab), from Genentech, significantly increases survival in patients with a specific genetic mutation (HER-2) that results in very aggressive disease, according to a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine. The three-armed study compared the standard therapy of Adriamycin and Carboplatin followed by Taxotere (ACT), the same regimen plus one year of Herceptin (ACTH), and a regimen of Taxotere and Carboplatin with one year of Herceptin (TCH). The study shows a survival advantage for patients in the Herceptin-containing arms, with 92 percent of patients on ACTH and 91 percent of patients on TCH still alive at five years, compared to 87 percent in the ACT arm. Estimated disease-free survival, or the time from treatment to recurrence, was 75 percent the ACT arm, 84 percent among those receiving ACTH and 81 percent in the TCH arm. According to lead researcher Dennis Slamon from UCLA�s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, a non-anthracycline regimen seems to be the preferred option, and raises questions about what role Adriamycin should play in the treatment of early breast cancer due to their serious and chronic long-term side effects.Possibly this study will lead towards a non anthracycline treatment option. see "Adjuvant Trastuzumab in HER2-Positive Breast Cancer" Dennis Slamon et al, for the Breast Cancer International Research Group N Engl J Med 2011; 365: 1273-1283 October 6, 2011