[Becky]

Mark Pegram made a blanket statement that antibodies are more active than small molecule inhibitors on Saturday night (12/16) - in reference to his discussion on Herceptin and Tykerb. When comparing response rates of Herceptin plus Taxol and now Tykerb plus taxol in the metastatic setting, Herceptin has a higher complete and partial response rate.


All data on Tykerb testing in women who are only Her1+ shows no response and all the "greats" to include Winer, Pegram and Slamon have presented using statements that Tykerb is a very weak Her1 inhibitor and only shows response if the patient is Her2+.

Please recognize that Tykerb is still a good drug. It truly will be a magic bullet for some as Herceptin was and is. I believe that Tykerb in combination with Herceptin will be great (attacking cancer from the inside and the outside). Along the pike comes other new molecules and these combinations will also be instrumental (with or without chemo regimes) to keep most if not all Her2+ women NED if recurrences occur. Even though Tykerb may not seem to be as good as Herceptin (when looking at pure numbers) it is how an individual responds to the drug that really matters and a good enough percentage of women do or else it would never get this far in clinical trials or upcoming FDA approval.