Word: herceptin
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...Many newer drugs target other pathways for tumor growth. Herceptin, introduced in 1998, interferes with a protein called epidermal growth factor by blocking the her2 receptor, a binding site that is found on the surface of many cells but is overabundant in about 25% of breast cancers. Other smart drugs interfere with the same growth factor, using slightly different chemical strategies to do so, and some have proved useful in a range of cancers. Gleevec, for example, which was approved in 2001, prevents growth factors from attaching to cancer cells and activating an enzyme called tyrosine kinase, which regulates cell...
...worried about sharp cuts in federal research spending. Hayes remembers wincing a bit 25 years ago when patients wistfully hoped that "something new will come along" to save them. "Now there's something new coming down the pike all the time," he says. In fact, an alternative to Herceptin was approved this month, giving doctors something to try when Herceptin stops working...
...parts of the body are still managing to evade the best therapies thrown at them. For some leukemias, survival rates have not budged since the 1970s. To be sure, there are gentler and more sophisticated forms of chemotherapy and radiation, as well as clever new drugs like Gleevec and Herceptin that take better aim at cancerous cells. But those therapies treat all cancer cells as equals. The next generation of treatments, doctors say, needs to recognize and target the root cause of tumors. "It requires a reorientation in people's thinking," says Weinberg. "We need to focus on wiping...
Breast Cancer When the authors of a large international study reported that Herceptin, a powerful drug for treating advanced cases of so-called HER2-positive breast cancers, could also dramatically reduce--by 46%--recurrence of early-stage HER2 cancers, they triggered impassioned requests for the drug by patients and fierce debate among doctors. At issue was whether the trial, which had reported interim--not final--results, was reliable enough to persuade doctors to change their treatment practices. Most physicians have decided to wait for the trial to be completed in 2008 before making any decisions...
...from the point of view of a doctor--and a son--the news on breast cancer has mostly been good lately. Two weeks ago, for example, the results from a large trial of Herceptin, a medicine approved for late-stage patients, showed that it dramatically reduced recurrence in early-stage patients as well--by about 50%. Because Herceptin works by blocking a protein called HER2 that signals cells to divide and grow too fast, it is valuable only for the 20% to 30% of patients whose tumors are HER2-positive. Still, the news was greeted by many specialists...