Breast Cancer Drug Improves Women's' Survival Outlook

A new breast cancer drug produced by Roche has improved the outlook for women with the disease. The drug is called T-DM1 and is marketed under the name Kadcyla. Studies have shown that Kadcyla can extend the lives of women with advanced stages of breast cancer, as many as six months. It works as a combination of both chemotherapy and the drug Herceptin. Kadcyla is currently extremely expensive, costing as much as 44,000 pounds per patient. It is scheduled to be made available by the NHS through a fund. There is growing concern, however, because the fund is only scheduled to run until 2016.

Kadcyla has been hailed as a major advancement because it has improved the outlook of women with aggressive strains of the disease. Dr. Caitlin Palframan, Breakthrough Breast Cancer’s Senior Policy Manager, was quoted as saying, “This is a huge step forward. Kadcyla has been shown to extend life by up to six months in HER2-positive secondary breast cancer patients, and with more manageable side effects than alternative drugs. It has the potential to provide women with a better quality of life in their final months than existing treatments, which could make a significant difference.”

Women in clinical trials who were treated with Kadcyla instead of traditional drugs lapatinib and capecitabine saw an increase in survival time of 5.8 months. Patients using Kadcyla also had fewer negative side effects that are typically associated with cancer treatments, such as hair loss or nausea.

Source:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10633365/New-breast-cancer-drug-huge-step-forward.html