CHICAGO, June 4 (UPI) -- U.S. firm Genentech said Monday data from two phase 3 trials show the breast cancer drug Herceptin ups survival 52 percent in HER2-positive cases.
The biotech firm said a joint analysis of the two trials showed that, with a median follow-up of almost three years, adding Herceptin to standard adjuvant therapy significantly enhanced overall survival in women with the form of breast cancer known as HER2-positive, node-positive breast cancer, compared to women who were given standard adjuvant therapy alone.
In fact, 86 percent of women treated with Herceptin plus chemotherapy were disease-free at four years' follow-up, compared to 73 percent of women getting only chemotherapy, a benefit that was seen across a number of different patient subgroups, the company said.
Genentech said the data reveal its widely prescribed cancer drug as the first drug used with chemotherapy targeting HER2-positive breast cancer to show an overall survival benefit in adjuvant breast cancer and in first-line metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer.
"These findings show, when using Herceptin for the adjuvant treatment of women with HER2-positive, node-positive breast cancer, patients live longer," said Hal Barron, Genentech's senior vice president of development and chief medical officer. "These data further reinforce the use of Herceptin and chemotherapy as the foundation of care for women with this aggressive form of the disease."
The company presented the findings at the American Society of Clinical Oncology this week in Chicago.
