Push back of 2 yr of Herceptin Arm Results

[Becky]

This is the first time I have seen that there will be a push back on the analysis of using 1 yr of Herceptin vs 2 ys of Herceptin (see last line below).

I was expecting something at ASCO 2007 but the Hera trial ACCURATELY said that the 1 yr of Herceptin results would be released in June, 2005 and they were right as they released them in May, 2005.

Oh well on the long standing date of April, 2007.

The bad part about this is that "rumors" say that 2 yrs of Herceptin is not better than one year. Because the real results aren't out, no researcher can get a grant to test 1 yr of Herceptin vs (lets say) 6 months of Herceptin (which might be just as good as one yr) so the optimum amount of Herceptin therapy can't be found yet.



When are HERA Trial results expected?
Twenty-three-month follow-up results of the HERA Trial were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting on 3rd June 2006. This analysis showed that patients treated with Herceptin® for one year experienced statistically significant improvements in the length of time after treatment during which no disease was found and prolonged survival compared with patients who did not receive Herceptin®.
Two-year data of Herceptin® as adjuvant therapy are pending from the HERA Trial, and the final analysis of the one- versus two-year arms is estimated to take place in 2008/2009.

[Hopeful]

Becky,

Thanks for this information. Do you have any thoughts why these results would be delayed? I appreciate your insight.

Hopeful

[Becky]

IMO - I think you really need more time for the curves to (potentially come apart or stay together) and they want to make sure they have enough time to accurately and correctly make their conclusions.

Although those early conclusions can always be restated every year that there is more overall survival and disease free survival data (even the original Tamoxifen trials state more information as these women are still followed).

I think right now, there is no statistical difference so they want more time to see if this holds.