New drug offers hope vs. breast cancer

Georgios Kefalas/Keystone/AP

Roche Holding developed a man-made antibody under the brand name Herceptin, part of an experimental drug in the fight against breast cancer.

An experimental drug has shown stunning results in delaying the progression of a specific type of breast cancer and prolonging the lives of patients.

The drug, dubbed T-DM1, acts like a ?smart bomb? that delivers cancer-killing chemicals directly to tumors while sparing surrounding healthy cells.

Researchers say the combo has been effective in treating women with HER2-positive breast cancer, an aggressive form of the disease battled by about 25% of breast cancer patients.

The treatment can stop the disease from metastasizing for 9.6 months, compared with 6.4 months with standard therapies.

?It?s a brand-new way of treating HER2-positive breast cancer,? lead study author Dr. Kimberly Blackwell told CNN. ?This will offer a very important therapeutic option for patients faced with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.?

Blackwell, a professor of medicine at Duke University, said patients on the experimental drug also had fewer side effects like nausea and fatigue than those undergoing standard cancer-fighting therapies.

Results of the study of 1,000 patients were revealed Sunday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago.

The T in T-DM1 refers to the drug called trastuzumab emtansine, a man-made antibody developed by Roche Holdings under the brand name Herceptin. DM1 refers to the powerful chemotherapy called emtasine.

About 65% of participants getting the T-DM1 combo treatment were still alive after two years, compared with 48% of patients on standard treatment, Blackwell said.

?The data are pretty compelling,? said Dr. Michael Link, president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

?It?s sort of a smart bomb kind of therapy, a poison delivered to the tumor . . . and not a lot of other collateral damage to other organs,? he told ABC News.

With News Wire Services

whutchinson@nydailynews.com

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