New breast cancer therapy yields better outcomes

MANILA, Philippines - One person is diagnosed with breast cancer somewhere in the world every 22 seconds and more than three people die of breast cancer every five minutes.

Around one in five people diagnosed with breast cancer will have a type called “HER2-positive,” which is an aggressive type of the disease.

HER2-positive breast cancer is likely to grow more quickly than cancer that is not HER2-positive and it is also less responsive to traditional treatments, such as hormonal therapy and chemotherapy, which is why people need personalized treatments.  

However, despite this significant progress, in up to half of people with late stage HER2-positive breast cancer the disease can eventually progress, requiring further treatment to prolong life.

On Oct. 16, 2013, the Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of Roche pertuzumab in combination with trastuzumab and docetaxel in adult patients with HER2-positive metastatic or locally recurrent unresectable breast cancer, who have not received previous anti-HER2 therapy or chemotherapy for their metastatic disease.

Pertuzumab, trastuzumab and docetaxel for previously untreated HER2-positive late-stage breast cancer is the first treatment combination to extend the time people lived without their disease worsening (progression free survival) and the time they lived overall (overall survival), since trastuzumab plus chemotherapy alone.

The approval of pertuzumab was based on the large, international phase III clinical study CLEOPATRA (CLinical Evaluation Of Pertuzumab And  TRAtuzumab), which showed that Roche pertuzumab in combination with Roche trastuzumab and docetaxel had a statistically significant 38 percent reduction in the risk of their disease worsening (Progression Free Survival, HR=0.62, p-value=<0.0001) and reduced the risk of death by 34 percent, compared to those who received Roche trastuzumab and docetaxel only (Overall Survival, HR=0.66; p=0.0008).

Different pertuzumab clinical trials are underway in a number of different settings and cancer types and in combination with different chemotherapies.  

To date, pertuzumab is approved in Europe, the United States, Canada, Singapore and 33 other countries, including the Philippines. It is anticipated that further approvals will be received during 2014. This approval may change the way that doctors treating cancer approach the treatment of patients with this aggressive disease.