New Addition to Arsenal Against Breast Cancer

March 14, 2007 — -- The media are abuzz today about the FDA's approval of the new breast cancer drug Tykerb, also known by its generic name, lapatinib.

Reporters are asking how important this new targeted therapy really is and what its impact will be on the treatment of women with breast cancer.

The answers to these questions are fairly straightforward, but the impact over time is a bit more uncertain.

Breast cancer is not one single disease.

When breast cancer is diagnosed, doctors examine the cancer specimen for several different markers that give us clues as to how the cancer will behave -- and what treatments may be helpful in preventing its recurrence. These tests also provide clues to what treatments may be most effective if the breast cancer relapses.

For many years, we have measured hormone receptors (estrogen and progesterone) in the breast cancer tissue, and more recently doctors have looked for another genetic marker called HER2.

When this HER2 marker is present in the cancer tissue (as is the case in approximately 20 percent of the estimated 178,480 invasive breast cancers that will be diagnosed in women in the United States in 2007), it signals a cancer that is usually more aggressive than the typical breast cancer. It also usually occurs in a younger population.

Herceptin, also known by its generic name, trastuzumab, is a drug that targeted this abnormality in breast cancer tissue. When it was first approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1998, it represented a significant step forward in the treatment of advanced breast cancer in women who had this particular genetic marker.

Trastuzumab improved response rates and lengthened survivals for many women who had found themselves in a grim situation. It wasn't a cure, but it was a major step forward.

It represented not only an effective cancer therapy but also proof that targeted therapies could be very helpful in the treatment of a variety of cancers.