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A patient being bumped from a clinical trial because of disease progression is not considered evaluable. The response rate is calculated after removing patients who have been excluded, thus giving a more optimistic look at a therapy that may have limited success. The drug can improve progression-free survival in "some" women with metastatic breast cancer. Median overall survival for patients treated with the drug was not reached, according to the researchers (not company spokespeople). The antibody-drug conjugate shrinks "some" breast cancer tumors. Because this drug may work in "some" women, is that a reason to give it to all others, risking mutagenic effects of ineffective therapy? The mutagenic effects of chemotherapy on a genetically-unstable tumor can drive the tumor into a state of more aggressive behavior. You might kill off a whole lot of cancer, only to cause a mutation in the remaining cancer, such that the remaining cancer behaves in a more aggressive fashion.
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