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| New Combination of Therapies Prolongs Life |
Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center member and breast oncologist Kimberly Blackwell, MD, recently reported evidence that a combination-targeted therapy of lapatinib plus trastuzumab gave patients whose breast tumors are HER2-positive more than a four-month survival advantage over those patients who took lapatinib alone.
Targeted therapies are defined by the National Cancer Institute as drugs or other substances that block the growth of cancer cells by interfering with specific targeted molecules needed for carcinogenesis and tumor growth, rather than by simply interfering with rapidly dividing cells as with traditional chemotherapy.
Blackwell says the recent findings may be the first step toward a chemotherapy-free future.
This is the first time that two targeted therapies has been shown to be superior to any treatment that paired a targeted therapy with a hormonal or chemotherapy based approach, according to Blackwell.
The study results stem from a large, Phase III clinical trial where investigators randomized 296 patients with metastatic breast cancer to receive either lapatinib (also known as Tykerb) alone or lapatinib plus trastuzumab (Herceptin) once a day.
All participants had metastatic disease that had continued to spread
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even after receiving treatments with several interventions that included trastuzumab plus chemotherapy.
The median overall survival following treatment with lapatinib plus trastuzumab was 60.7 weeks compared to 41.4 weeks for those who took only lapatinib.
This clinical trial was based on the scientific work of Duke investigators Neil Spector, MD; Wenle Xia; Leihua Liu; and Peter Ho. Their findings, published in 2004, provided the scientific rationale for what is now known as "total HER2" blockade, whereby the activity of the HER2 receptor in breast cancer is blocked by using two independent HER2 targeted therapies with different mechanisms of action -- Herceptin, a HER2 antibody, and Tykerb, an oral therapy that blocks HER2 activation within the cell.
Other researchers involved in the clinical trial include Hal Burstein, from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute; George Sledge, from Indiana University Cancer Center; Steven Stein, Catherine Ellis, and Michelle Casey, of GlaxoSmithKline; Jose Baselga, of Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain; and Joyce O'Shaughnessy from Baylor Sammons Cancer Center, Texas Oncology, PA, US Oncology, Dallas. |
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