New breast cancer drug

A new breast cancer drug called Lapatinib has the ability to reduce tumour growth in women.

According to a research carried out at the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center, a new and experimental breast cancer drug called Lapatinib has the ability to reduce tumour growth in women.

According to the study, this result emerged after an eight week national trial. Kimberly Blackwell, an oncologist from the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center, presented the data at the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in New Orleans.

The data shows that 46 per cent of breast cancer patients who took the oral drug for eight weeks had stable disease or tumour shrinkage. Approximately 24 percent of patients who took the drug for four months had stable disease or tumour shrinkage.

Blackwell called the results encouraging because lapatinib is one of the first drugs to elicit a response in women whose tumours did not respond to at least two traditional therapies, including Trastuzumab (Herceptin).

Trastuzumab is the front-line drug used to treat women whose tumours overproduce a growth-regulating protein called Her-2. But nearly one-third of tumors with Her-2 over-expression do not respond to trastuzumab.

Lapatinib represents a new type of therapy because it targets Her-2 plus another growth factor protein called Epidermal Growth Factor (EGFR).

"Blocking the action of two growth factors has a more profound effect on inhibiting cell growth than blocking a single growth factor, and we think this dual action on breast cancer cells is
responsible for the positive effects we're seeing," said Blackwell.

The study showed that lapatinib was safe and had minimal side effects, because it targets only these two very specific receptor sites on breast cancer cells.

Women to whom the drug was administered experienced rashes, fatigue, and diarrhea in contrast to chemotherapy that can cause debilitating nausea, anemia, fatigue and the potential for heart and liver damage.