I found this on my wanders. It dates back to 2002.
As I read it participants did not have chemo first. I have seen the topic of how effective is herceptin without chemo raised on several occasions.
I have not checked out the figures. At a quick glance I wanted more information as to the actual number taken on drop outs etc., impact of drop outs on stats etc, so I make no comment beyond as usual you need do your own checking.
As the only trial I have come across for hecrceptin without chemo it seemed worth posting.
RB
http://www.jco.org/cgi/content/full/...f535d3c01c6b2a
ABSTRACT
The results of this trial indicate that trastuzumab is active as a single agent and produces durable objective responses in women with HER2-overexpressing breast cancer who have not previously received chemotherapy for their metastatic disease. The response rate was 26%; the clinical benefit rate was 38% in all assessable patients and 48% in the subset whose tumors overexpressed HER2 at the 3+ level by IHC. Although an accurate assessment of the median duration of response was not possible because of censoring, 57% of the responding patients were known to be free of disease progression at 12 months or more of follow-up, underscoring the durability of the responses. These findings are noteworthy in view of the poor prognosis in this population.2-4,10 In addition, patients had lung or liver metastases (67%) because of the requirement for bidimensionally measurable disease. Furthermore, most patients had received adjuvant chemotherapy (68%), which included an anthracycline (50%) or high-dose therapy with stem-cell rescue (12%).
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