[chrisy]

Herceptin DM1 is a first in class drug which links a toxin (DM1) to a herceptin antibody. The Herceptin targets the her2 protein as regular herceptin, then once it docks with the her2 receptor, the DM1 is released within the cancer cell and kills the cancer cell. So, instead of relying on the herceptin to stop the cancer, you are using it as a targeting mechanism to deliver the toxin (which kills the cell). Is has been likened to a "smart bomb".

At San Antonio I saw the poster presentation, and one of the comments was that they had never been able to use the DM1 in therapy because it was "too toxic"...so they were excited about the herceptin DM1 because they could now deliver it directly to the cancer cell with minimal toxicity to normal cells.

The full name of the drug is Trastuzumab-MCC-Dm1 with the MCC being the "linker" molecule. This is critical as in earlier efforts to do this, the linker would not "hold on" to the toxin long enough, but the MCC does.

Not a super technical explanation, but it is fairly accurate!

They are now beginning adjuvant trials to see if the T-DM1 could be given instead of chemo + herceptin, with good efficacy but far less toxicity and side effects.