Successfully Completed Mission: Destroying Breast Cancer Tumors Without Chemotherapy

This mission is taking action each day. The fighting against cancer is daily and many people are infected with this deadly disease. Many even lose the fight. However, many do try to find a cure. Hopefully one day we will all be free from this devastating disease. Any day a new study shows a potential cure for cancer is a good day, and scientists in Europe may have found a breakthrough for breast cancer. The most common cancer in women, about 1 in 8 American women will develop it in their life; The clinical trial may have found a way to get rid of it once and for all in the future.

Research presented by Professor Nigel Bundred at the European Breast Cancer Conference in Amsterdam revealed that they had tested the effectiveness of a pair of drugs known as Herceptin (aka trastuzumab) and Lapatinib.

The two drugs are commonly used in the treatment of breast cancer currently, but this is the first time they have been combined and used prior to surgery and chemotherapy. These 2 components combined were able to eliminate some types of breast cancer in as little as 11 days.

Funded by Cancer Research UK, they aimed to use these drugs to fight a protein called HER2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2), which affects the growth and division of cancer cells. It is also more likely to return than other cancers.

What also makes this treatment so attractive is the fact that it can eliminate the need for chemotherapy and / or surgery in some cases.

Results of the study

257 women with HER2 positive breast cancer were selected for the study. In the first round, 130 women were assigned to one of three groups – some received Herceptin (trastuzumab), others received lapatinib. Both groups were treated for 11 days after diagnosis and before surgery. A third group did not receive any pharmacological treatment prior to surgery (the control group). What they found was that of the combination of Herceptin and lapatinib, 7 of the 66 women had no cancer cells in two weeks and another 11 women had dramatically reduced tumors.

Compared with the control group who were only given Herceptin, they were found to have 0% no trace of cancer cells and only 3% showed a drop in tumor size. Clearly, the two drugs combined have a significant effect on breast cancer cells rather than being used by themselves individually.

The current problem, however, is that the Herceptin license makes it only available for use along with chemo and not just. The results of this study may help to change that though.

Although there is still much work to be done, this is an important step in the fight against one of the deadliest diseases in the world. With medical advancements improving every year, it is entirely possible that this could happen sooner than we think!