Good news--new more effective variation on herceptin underway

[Lani]

It is just a modification of the drug by taking away a fucose from herceptin. Seems to make it more effective without changing its pharmacokinetics (how often, much need to take). Safe in lab rodents--now to be tested in lab primates, it seems. Genentech developing it so they know how to get FDA approval relatively rapidly (vs newer companies)

Cancer Res. 2010 May 18. [Epub ahead of print]
Superior In vivo Efficacy of Afucosylated Trastuzumab in the Treatment of HER2-Amplified Breast Cancer.
Junttila TT, Parsons K, Olsson C, Lu Y, Xin Y, Theriault J, Crocker L, Pabonan O, Baginski T, Meng G, Totpal K, Kelley RF, Sliwkowski MX.

Authors' Affiliation: Genentech, Inc., South San Francisco, California.
Abstract
The enhancement of immune effector functions has been proposed as a potential strategy for increasing the efficacy of therapeutic antibodies. Here, we show that removing fucose from trastuzumab (Herceptin) increased its binding to FcgammaRIIIa, enhanced antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity, and more than doubled the median progression-free survival when compared with conventional trastuzumab in treating preclinical models of HER2-amplified breast cancer. Our results show that afucosylated trastuzumab has superior efficacy in treating in vivo models of HER2-amplified breast cancer and support the development of effector function-enhanced antibodies for solid tumor therapy. Cancer Res; 70(11); 4481-9. (c)2010 AACR.

PMID: 20484044

[Ellie F]

This sounds like really great news especially as it is 'tinkering' with an existing tried and tested drug rather than starting from scratch!
Ellie

[schoolteacher]

Thanks for the article, Lani.

Hope they try it on humans soon.

Amelia

[Nancy L]

Fucose would seem to be a benign ingredient in the formula. Do you know Lani if the FDA requires extensive testing for a change like this?

[Darlene Denise]

Nancy: Can you add this to your "ask Dr Slamon" list for October. Would be intersting what he knows and thinks.

Hope you are feeling good...Darlene