He said that pertuzumab in combination with Herceptin essentially provides a dual blockage of HER2.
Herceptin targets a protein called HER2 found on tumors in about 20%-25% of breast-cancer patients.
HER2 is a protein that is overproduced in about one-fourth of all breast cancers.
It helps 20% of breast cancer patients whose tumors have high levels of a gene called HER2.
Erbb2, or Her2, is the target of breast cancer drug Herceptin from Roche and lapatinib from GlaxoSmithkline.
In HER2-positive breast cancers, the increased amount of the protein contributes to cancer call growth and survival.
About one-third test positive for a protein called HER2 that makes cancers particularly aggressive, but susceptible to the drug Herceptin.
The drug aims at the 25% of breast cancer patients whose tumors express high levels of a protein called HER2.
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If so they can benefit from Herceptin, a drug which works on patients with high levels of the Her2 protein.
Herceptin is a breast cancer drug that was developed to treat tumors that have a specific mutation in the Her2 gene.
About 20% of stomach tumors have excess amounts of the HER2 gene.
If your cancer is HER2 positive, you may also be given a targeted therapy to attack the protein that's overproduced in these cancers.
It wasn't until Genentech showed that it worked in patients whose tumors had a gene called HER2 that the drug made it to market.
The new study, called Emilia, involved about 1, 000 women with HER2-positive breast cancer who had been previously treated with Herceptin and a traditional chemotherapy drug.
Women with HER2-positive tumors account for about 20% of breast cancers.
HER2, a molecule often found on the surface of breast-tumour cells.
"This is a completely new way of treating HER2-positive breast cancer, " said Kimberly Blackwell, the study's lead researcher and a professor of medicine at Duke University.
For example, breast cancer patients are tested to see if their tumour is positive for 'Her2', a protein that can accelerate the growth of malignant cells.
Given intravenously, Kadcyla courses through the body, looking for breast-cancer cells with a distinguishing feature: a high number of a particular protein, called HER2, on their surface.
On Friday the drug was approved for use in combination with Aromasin for postmenopausal women with recurring HER2-negative breast cancer, after treatment with the drugs Femara and Arimidex.
Nearly 20% of breast cancers have increased amounts of HER2.
Both of these drugs target mainly HER2-positive breast cancer.
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The results were shown in the first randomized phase II study comparing trastuzumab-DM1 (T-DM1) to Herceptin (trastuzumab) plus chemotherapy (docetaxel), the current standard of care for first line HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.
Kadcyla, known as an "antibody-drug conjugate, " represents "a completely new way" to treat HER2 positive metastatic breast cancer, said Dr. Hal Barron, chief medical officer and head of global product development for Genentech.
She said she recently treated a woman whose breast cancer initially tested negative for a mutation that causes elevated levels of a cancer-promoting protein called HER2, which would have made her a candidate for the drug Herceptin.
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