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Breakthrough Breast Cancer Drug Shows Major Promise
29 Oct
Summary
- Drug significantly delayed cancer progression, showing 16.4 months median without growth.
- Patients receiving the drug were 73% less likely to have cancer worsen or die.
- While effective, the drug was linked to increased serious side effects like anemia.
A new drug, trastuzumab rezetecan, has demonstrated significant potential in treating advanced ERBB2-low metastatic breast cancer. In a phase 3 HORIZON-Breast06 trial involving 551 female patients in China, the drug significantly delayed cancer progression.
Patients treated with trastuzumab rezetecan experienced a median of 16.4 months before tumor growth, substantially longer than the 6.8 months seen with standard chemotherapy. This represents a 73% reduction in the likelihood of cancer worsening or death during the study period.
The drug showed efficacy in both hormone receptor-positive and negative breast cancers. Tumors shrank in 75.5% of patients receiving trastuzumab rezetecan, compared to 41.2% with chemotherapy. At 12 months, survival rates were 90.6% for the drug group versus 81.4% for chemotherapy.
Despite these encouraging results, trastuzumab rezetecan was associated with more serious side effects, occurring in over 84% of patients, compared to nearly 68% with chemotherapy. These included anemia and other blood-related problems, though researchers noted these were generally manageable. Further research is needed to determine if the drug improves overall survival.
