Herceptin is a targeted therapy group of anticancer drugs that is used specifically for breast cancer and gastric cancer that are HER2 positive. HER2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor2) is a gene that may be faulty in some people that causes cells to divide and multiply in an uncontrolled way. HER2 clinical studies show how well or effective Herceptin is in adjuvant breast cancer treatment, metastatic breast cancer and metastatic gastric cancer treatments

How effective is Herceptin for Adjuvant Breast Cancer treatment?

Adjuvant breast cancer treatment is an additional therapy to surgery to help reduce chances of the cancer recurring. Using herceptin with adjuvant breast cancer treatment was studied in trials called Studies 1 and 2 to assess its safety and efficacy.

The patients had to have:

• breast cancer with HER2 overexpression (3+ by IHC) or gene amplification (by FISH), and
• any patients with cardiac disease were excluded due to known cardiac side effects of Herceptin.

The studies compared one group of patients using the chemotherapy combination doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide followed by paclitaxel to the second group who used the same chemotherapy combinations with the addition of Herceptin.

The results show in the Herceptin with chemotherapy group:

• 6.78% more patient were still disease free after 2 years in the Herceptin with chemotherapy group (92.90%) compared to chemotherapy group (86.12%)
• The overall estimated median survival was 7.5% higher in the Herceptin with chemotherapy group (86.9%) compared to chemotherapy group (79.4%)

Trial Results for Adjuvant breast cancer treatment using Herceptin and chemotherapy