Drug combo effective for breast cancer treatment

New research has proven that a mix of the specific treatments, which play different roles in breast cancer, can provide a customized therapy method of treat women with advanced stages from the disease.

Adding Afinitor to Herceptin, the primary strategy to HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer, helps some women with disease that's been resistant against previous Herceptin-based treatments, it had been found.

"Herceptin (trastuzumab) can be useful for many patients, but about 30 percent of individuals with advanced disease don't react to the drug, even coupled with chemotherapy," stated PK Morrow, M.D., assistant professor within the Department of Breast Medical Oncology and lead co-author from the study.

"Even when metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer initially responds to Herceptin, the condition usually eventually progresses on standard Herceptin-based therapy."

Potential to deal with Herceptin continues to be associated with activation from the PI3K/mTOR cancer path. PTEN, a protein that functions like a tumor suppressor, can combat P13K. However even without the PTEN, the mTOR cancer path might be triggered.

Afinitor (everolimus) triumphs over resistance by suppressing the mTOR path.

"Mixing both of these agents offers patients with metastatic HER2-positive cancer of the breast a chemotherapy-free option," Morrow stated.

"Even though many of these women had received multiple chemotherapy regimens, this regimen offered additional clinical benefit and fewer toxicity for a lot of of patients, he added.

The research continues to be released within the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Posted in Breast Cancer