HOUSTON, April 4 (UPI) -- Texas researchers say breast cancer patients with HER2-positive tumors who do not respond to Herceptin may respond to a cocktail that includes the drug.
The cocktail shows promise in experimental work with mice and cell cultures.
Dr. Dihua Yu and her colleagues at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center found that patients who do not respond to Herceptin have low levels of a protein that is a powerful tumor suppressor gene in their cancers. Because the protein, PTEN, works by blocking PI3K, a protein that encourages growth, she decided to try an experimental PI3K inhibitor.
"If this drug cocktail shows benefit, we hope to be able to identify those patients who won't respond to Herceptin before they start the treatment, and offer them a new and beneficial drug combination," Yu said. "Patients who don't respond to Herceptin have worrisome outcomes, so we hope this strategy will help them."
Yu presents her research Wednesday at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Washington.
