Breast Cancer Patients Sought for Herceptin-Chemotherapy Study

Researchers are looking for more than 3,000 women with breast cancer and an alternation in the HER-2/neu gene to participate in a new study of the combination of Herceptin and chemotherapy.

The study, which will be based at UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center, may involve as many as 600 institutions through the Breast Cancer International Research Group.

"The Herceptin-chemotherapy combinations have been shown to decrease breast cancer deaths by 27 percent in women whose metastatic breast cancer is characterized by an alteration in the HER-2/neu gene," said Dr. Dennis Slamon, director of the Revlon/UCLA Women's Cancer Research Program.

"This is significant because the life expectancy of patients who have the genetic alteration can be as low as half the life expectancy of patients who don't have it," he said. "By giving Herceptin and chemotherapy at an earlier stage, we hope to help patients who have the genetic alteration live longer and ultimately have the best chance of being cured."

The new study will test standard chemotherapy combinations for aggressive early-stage breast cancer with and without Herceptin. No study participant will receive less than the best available standard therapies for early-stage breast cancer, Slamon said.

"We hope that the high efficacy seen in testing these therapeutic combinations against late-stage breast cancer will translate to better results in treating aggressive early-stage disease," Slamon said.

To be eligible for the trial, the patients' tumor cells must have an overabundance of the HER-2/neu protein. Women who have breast tumors that are 2 centimeters or larger and have no lymph node involvement or women who have smaller tumors with at least one positive lymph node involved may be considered for the study.

To learn more about eligibility requirements for this trial, call the Jonsson Cancer Center clinical trials hotline at 1-888-798-0719.

Other sources: UCLA