Study: Herceptin® Plus Chemotherapy Before Surgery Shrinks Breast Tumors

Herceptin®, administered before breast cancer surgery in combination with two chemotherapy drugs, shrank breast tumors so significantly that locally invasive cancers became undetectable in one out of four women who participated in the study, according to Florida researchers.

Herceptin is a member of the epidermal growth factor receptor family of drugs which blocks the growth receptors on the surface of cancer cells.

Fifty percent of the women in the Phase II study were node-negative by the time of their surgery after being treated with Herceptin in addition to chemotherapy.

The study was presented by Dr. Judith Hurley, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Miami, at the 38th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Orlando, Florida.

"This regimen proved to be highly active, yielding an unusually high rate of tumor disappearance, which hopefully will translate to an improvement in survival," said Hurley.

Other sources: UM/Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center