Recently approved drug improves the lives of patients with advanced breast cancer
(HealthDay News) — A pharmaceutical chemotherapy recently approved targeted therapy can significantly prolong the life of patients with advanced breast cancer that have developed tumors in the brainshow the results of a new clinical trial.
On average, patients who received the drug Enhertu (trastuzumab deruxtecan) survived more than 17 months without any cancer progression, the researchers reported in the Oct. 4 issue of the journal Nature Medicine.
More than 60 percent of patients survived 12 months without further tumor growth, show the results.
And in patients who had developed brain tumors, more than 70 percent had their tumors shrunken, and a 90 percent They were alive a year after starting their treatment, the researchers found.
“These findings offer hope to patients with brain metastases in particular,” said co-lead researcher Dra. Nadia Harbeckdirector of the breast cancer clinic at the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich, Germany.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Enhertu in April for the treatment of people with advanced cancers HER2 positive.
The drug Enhertu shows promising results in the treatment of brain metastases (Illustrative Image Infobae)
HER2 (human epidermal growth factor 2) is a protein that can promote the growth and spread of breast cancer. HER2-positive breast cancers make up up to 20 percent of all breast cancers, the researchers noted in background notes.
Enhertu contains trastuzumab and deruxtecan. Trastuzumab is a monoclonal antibody which targets and attaches to a cancer cell’s HER2 proteins. This allows deruxtecan, a chemotherapy drug, to enter the cancer cell and kill it, along with other nearby tumor cells.
“That’s why we can use this active ingredient in the first place,” Harbeck said in a university news release. “Otherwise it would be too toxic.”
For this new clinical trial, researchers recruited more than 500 patients with HER2 positive breast cancer, including 263 whose cancer had spread to the brain. These patients came from 78 cancer centers around the world.
The study was sponsored by pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca y Daiichi Sankyouwhich were developed and marketed by Enhertu.
More than 60% of patients survived one year without further tumor growth (EFE/Nathalia Aguilar)
More information: The American Cancer Society has more information about HER2-positive breast cancers.
SOURCE: Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, press release, October 4, 2024
*Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
