Herceptin, Trastuzumab News

Despite the fact that the incidence of cancer is many fold higher in persons over 65 years of age, we still have an inadequate understanding on how best to treat these older cancer patients.

Good morning everyone and thank you for attending our annual global healthcare conference.

The risk of heart failure is alarmingly high in older women with breast cancer. And, according to Yale University researchers, if those women take one commonly prescribed drug, the risk is even higher.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - An experimental treatment that combines a cell-killing radioactive particle with an antibody that homes in on cancer cells is safe in the treatment of cancers spreading through patients' abdomens, according to data from a first-in-human study presented today at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging annual meeting ... (more)

BACKGROUND: Certain somatic alterations in breast cancer can define prognosis and response to therapy.

The findings showed that adding everolimus, an mTOR inhibitor, to trastuzumab and vinorelbine significantly extended progression-free survival when compared to treatment with placebo plus trastuzumab and vinorelbine, meeting the study's primary endpoint .

Novartis will present new findings in the treatment of advanced cancers and other diseases with 170 abstracts at two prominent medical meetings.

Cell proliferation , Vol. 40, No. 4. , pp. 488-507, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2184.2007.00449.x The potential of epidermal growth factor receptor - and Her2-targeted antibodies Cetuximab, Pertuzumab and Trastuzumab, used in combination to inhibit cell proliferation of breast cancer cells in vitro, has not been extensively investigated.

INTRODUCTION:The overexpression of human epidermal growth factor receptor -2 in 20% of human breast cancers and its association with aggressive growth has led to widespread use of HER2-targeted therapies, such as trastuzumab and lapatinib .