coming someday to an oncologist near you (and for home use???):subcutaneous herceptin
 

J Clin Pharmacol. 2012 Feb 22. [Epub ahead of print]
Comparison of Subcutaneous and Intravenous Administration of Trastuzumab: A Phase I/Ib Trial in Healthy Male Volunteers and Patients With HER2-Positive Breast Cancer.
Wynne C, Harvey V, Schwabe C, Waaka D, McIntyre C, Bittner B.
Abstract
Trastuzumab is a key component of treatment for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive breast cancer in both the early and metastatic settings. It is administered intravenously, with between 17 and 52 infusions in standard regimens over 1 year. Intravenous administration of trastuzumab requires substantial time commitments for patients and health care professionals and can result in patient discomfort. A subcutaneous formulation of trastuzumab, containing recombinant human hyaluronidase to overcome subcutaneous absorption barriers, would reduce the administration duration and remove the need to establish intravenous access, thus improving the overall convenience of trastuzumab administration. This open-label, 2-part, phase I/Ib study (NCT00800436) was undertaken in healthy male volunteers and female patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer to identify the dose of subcutaneous trastuzumab that resulted in exposure comparable with the approved intravenous trastuzumab dose. A subcutaneous trastuzumab dose of 8 mg/kg was found to result in exposure comparable with the intravenous trastuzumab dose of 6 mg/kg. The subcutaneous formulation was well tolerated, with a trend toward fewer adverse events versus intravenous administration; most adverse events were mild in intensity. These results support an ongoing phase III efficacy and safety study comparing a fixed subcutaneous trastuzumab dose with intravenous trastuzumab administration.
PMID: 22356944

Re: coming someday to an oncologist near you (and for home use???):subcutaneous herce
 

Been hearing about this for some time. Seems cumbersome to have to go 3 phase trials for simply different administration. They don't have to do that with generics or capsule to tablet. They just measure the circulation in bloodstream to be sure it's similar.