Roche's breast cancer drug Herceptin when used together with chemotherapy is three times more effective in eradicating tumors in women with inflammatory breast cancer than chemotherapy alone, according to a study presented by the company on Wednesday at the European Cancer Organization's conference in Barcelona, Spain, Reuters reports (Reuters, 9/26). FDA in 1998 approved Herceptin for treatment of advanced HER2-positive cancer that has spread beyond the breast. The aggressive form of the disease is found in about 25% to 30% of breast cancer patients and involves extra copies of the HER2 protein, the Wall Street Journal reports (Wall Street Journal, 9/27).

For the study, the women were assigned to one of two groups depending on HER2 status. All patients received chemotherapy before surgery. Patients with HER2-positive disease either received Herceptin with chemotherapy for one year or chemotherapy alone. Thirty-one patients with HER2-positive inflammatory breast cancer received Herceptin and chemotherapy. According to the results, 55% of patients with inflammatory breast cancer who received a Herceptin-chemotherapy combination had a complete disappearance of the tumors from the breast, compared with 19% of those who received chemotherapy alone.

The treatment was "well tolerated with acceptable cardiac safety," Roche said in a statement (Roche release, 9/26). Wolfgang Eiermann, medical director of the Red Cross Women's Hospital in Munich, Germany, said, "Herceptin has been proven to extend lives across the spectrum of HER2-positive disease, so these latest findings will be welcome news for the unfortunate few with inflammatory breast cancer, which is an especially devastating form of the disease" (Reuters, 9/26).