Lani I'm so grateful for all of the information you post for us. It gives me something to print and take with me to the onc when i feel like I should.

So neither gefitinib or pertuzumab have yet been approved as solo or dual agents? Are either of these in trial right now outside of the "triple agent" scheme? I'm sure I've missed elements of this discussion, and I apologize if so!

TRS

gefinitib (tarceva) was approved in Nov 2004 vs lung cancer, in Nov 2005 vspancreatic
 

cancer when used with gemcitabine. It is a pill.

Pertuzumab has not yet been FDA approved for any use and is not available outside trials, as far as I know.

Genentech website should have more information.

Hope this helps

I am a drug rep for Roche (we make xeloda). We just announced that we will be buying Genentech. I would really like to see if we can contact someone at Genentech and get them started on the triple threat combo as a study. I am going to start by writing the study nurse who is listed on the trial site. I will see if she can help me get some answers. If any study is done with Dr. Osborne, it will only be located at Baylor. If anybody else has some suggestions, please chime in

Kim

Go get em Kim!

Fantastic. I hope that Kim can go armed with knowledge and wisdom.

Well I tried writing Genentech but I got the run around. They asked me what my position was with Roche. Then she told me that I need to contact some one at Roche for more info. I'm afraid I not high enough in the food chain for them to just outright give up imformation.

We have a national meeting at the end of September. All the big shots will be there. I'm going to have to make a bold move and go up to one of these guys

Kim

Applicability of treatment
 

In reading the previous posts there were some that quite naturally express disappointment that a clinical trial might be limited to the newly diagnosed, and that brought up a consideration about so many of the results of non-human lab research:


STUDY INFO:

A clinical study using drug combinations in newly diagnosed patients with HER-2 positive breast cancer will start soon under the direction of physicians at BCM's BreastCenter, said Osborne.

"We are very excited to see if our laboratory results can be translated to patients with the more aggressive types of breast cancer," he said.

Methods: Mice carrying xenograft tumors of HER2-overexpressing MCF7/HER2-18 (HER2-transfected) or BT474 (HER2-amplified) cells were treated with estrogen supplementation or estrogen withdrawal, alone or combined with tamoxifen. One to three HER inhibitors (pertuzumab, trastuzumab, or gefitinib) could also be added (n ?8 mice per group).


LANI's comment:

"One of the big differences between that abstract and this article is that in the study cited in the ASCO abstract they used not only MCF7 cells transfected with her2 (an artificial construct which may not have any similarity to any naturally occuring tumor) but also BT474
a tumor which naturally occured in the poor person whose cell line was propagated and perpetuated which is her amplified (eg FISH+) and ER+. This human breast cancer cell line was implanted into the rodent,so...

This is as close as it gets to simulating her2+ER+ breast cancer as it occurs in humans."


ALASKAANGEL: This would be wonderful for all newly diagnosed patients. But unless the mice have been treated previously or simultaneously with the standard chemotherapy regimens that patients get, how can we know how for sure how this will work for many of us?