Herceptin effective alone or with chemo

[kalogria]

Hello everyone

I seem to have read several articles recently which suggest that Herceptin may be more effective or ONLY be effective if given at the same time as chemo.

Does anyone have any more information concerning its effectiveness given either at the same time as chemo or alone?

Best wishes everyone

[Hopeful]

Kalogria

Here are links to the Oct. 20, 2005 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine reporting on the results of the HERA (European) trial and the North American Trials for Herceptin as adjuvant treatment for early stage bc. In the HERA trial, patients received Herceptin as a single agent following chemotherapy. The North American trials included arms where Herceptin and chemo were administered together.

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/353/16/1673

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/353/16/1659

Efficacy was seen in all cases, though I believe the results were improved when chemo and Herceptin were administered together.

I wanted to add one more article for you: http://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/full/10/17/5650

This last one involves the use of neoadjuvant Herceptin therapy. The Discussion section begins, "Our study indicates that trastuzumab is safe, well tolerated, and can induce therapeutic responses in patients with primary operable breast cancer, even when used as a single agent and for a very short time period in the preoperative setting."

Hope this information is helpful.


Hopeful<!-- / message -->

[kalogria]

Many thanks for your reply Hopeful

Kalogria