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New study reveals breast cancer drug combination has impact on other cancers
- Drug commonly used to treat HER2-positive breast cancer sees tumour shrinkage in several other cancer types.
- Cancer treatment combination may have more uses than previously thought.
A drug combination approved to treat patients with a particular type of breast cancer (HER2-positive), shrank tumours in patients with several other types of cancer, new research published today finds.
The findings, in what was one of the largest global studies of "precision medicine" for cancerous tumours (the NCI MATCH trial), are significant as they outline that this breast cancer treatment combination may have more uses than previously thought.
In the trial, led by Professor Roisin Connolly, Director of Cancer Research at University College Cork (UCC), patients, ranging in ages from 31-80, and experiencing different types of cancer from gynaecological, gastrointestinal, urinary bladder to head and neck cancer, were examined to ascertain the impact of the HER2-targeting combination of the drugs trastuzumab and pertuzumab.
The study found that trastuzumab and pertuzumab, a combination which has shown to be effective in treating HER2-positive breast cancer, also shrank tumours in patients with other cancer types. HER2 is a protein (encoded by the HER2 gene) that helps breast cancer cells grow quickly. The study is published today in Clinical Cancer Research.
"This arm of the NCI MATCH trial had a strong rationale based on the proven effectiveness of pertuzumab and trastuzumab in both early and late-stage HER2-positive breast cancer. We have shown that some patients with other cancer types with high levels of HER2, where treatment options may be limited, also benefitted from this approach" states Professor Roisin Connolly, Director of Cancer Research at University College Cork (UCC) and the HRB funded UCC Cancer Trials Group.
Professor Connolly conducted this research while working at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the United States, with support from ECOG-ACRIN.
"It is so important for us to identify treatments that result in high rates of tumour shrinkage while minimizing adverse effects for the patients and maximizing quality of life during the treatment course. We aim to achieve this through offering high-quality clinical trials to patients attending our cancer centres" states Professor Connolly.