Combination therapy shows improved survival in breast cancer patients.

2004 JAN 1 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Genentech, Inc., (DNA) and Roche announced updated results from a clinical study evaluating Herceptin (Trastuzumab) in combination with Taxotere (docetaxel) as a first-line treatment for HER2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor-2)-positive metastatic breast cancer patients.

The multi-center, randomized phase II trial results suggest that adding Herceptin to docetaxel resulted in an increase in median survival of 51%, or 9.4 months (27.7 months for patients treated with Herceptin and docetaxel compared with 18.3 months for patients treated with docetaxel alone). Results of this trial were presented at the 26th Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

The overall response rate for patients treated with Herceptin plus docetaxel was significantly increased. Sixty-one percent (56/92) of patients who received Herceptin and docetaxel responded to the combination compared with 36% (34/94) of patients treated with docetaxel alone.

Median time to disease progression for patients treated with both therapies was 11 months, compared with 6 months for patients treated with docetaxel alone.

"This study highlights the importance for women diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer to determine their HER2 status and discuss with their physician appropriate first-line therapy with Herceptin," said Gwen Fyfe, MD, Genentech's vice president, clinical oncology/hematology.

"We are encouraged by these results - which are consistent with earlier data with similar combinations - and what they may mean to improving survival for some women battling HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer, often a more aggressive form of the disease."

Researchers reported that patients receiving the Herceptin/chemotherapy combination experienced an increase in febrile neutropenia or neutropenic sepsis over those receiving chemotherapy alone (23% vs 17%).