For women with metastatic, HER2-positive breast cancer, the amount of HER2 on their tumor might determine how much they benefit from a drug called trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1), according to data from a subanalysis of the phase III clinical trial that led the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve the drug on Feb. 22, 2013. These findings were presented by José Baselga, M.D., Ph.D., physician-in-chief at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, at the AACR Annual Meeting.
"EMILIA was a landmark phase III clinical trial," said Baselga. "It showed that T-DM1 prolonged progression-free and overall survival for patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer that had been previously treated with trastuzumab and a taxane chemotherapy compared with lapatinib plus capecitabine. Also, it provided proof-of-concept that a new class of drugs called antibody-drug conjugates can benefit patients."
Antibody-drug conjugates consist of an antibody attached to a toxic chemotherapy, according to Baselga. In the case of T-DM1, the antibody is trastuzumab and the toxic chemotherapy is emtansine. Trastuzumab recognizes the protein HER2, which is found at high levels in HER2-positive breast cancers, and targets the emtansine to the HER2-positive cancer cells, which are killed by the toxic chemotherapy. (MedicalXPress)
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