Researchers have found a drug targeting a protein responsible for driving breast cancer growth that works against tumors with deficient protein levels.
Although this breakthrough in targeted cancer therapy isn’t a cure, it could open up treatment options for thousands of patients with advanced breast cancer.
Recently, breast cancers were classified as HER2-positive or HER2- negative, depending on how much protein is present in the cancer cells. Following the advance, “HER2-low” will become a new classification used to guide breast cancer treatment.
Approximately 50% of late-stage breast cancer patients classified as HER2-negative may be HER2-low and suitable for the therapy.
Enhertu is an antibody-chemotherapy combination delivered intravenously. It locates and inhibits the HER2 protein on cancer cells, releasing a potent cancer-killing chemical. It’s part of a new family of drugs known as antibody-drug conjugates.
In April, the FDA approved the drug for treating HER2-positive breast cancer for this new group of patients.
The drug extended the time patients lived without their cancer advancing and enhanced survival in the latest study compared to patients who received standard treatment.
About 500 patients with HER2-low breast cancer that had spread or could not be treated with surgery were studied with Enhertu compared to standard chemotherapy. Enhertu stopped cancer progression for about ten months, while regular chemotherapy stopped cancer progression for about 5 1/2 months. The drug extended life by around six months (from 17.5 months to 23.9 months).
“It’s a practice-changing study,” said Dr. Sylvia Adams at NYU Langone Health. “It addresses a major unmet need for patients who have metastatic breast cancer.”
Experts say it’s now crucial to define the HER2 gray area so that the proper people get the treatment and are closely monitored.
The drug costs around $14,000 per month and has serious side effects. Three of the study’s participants died of lung disease, a recognized side effect. Doctors must ensure that patients report respiratory issues as soon as possible so that the drug can be stopped and the patients are treated with steroids.
On Sunday, the American Society of Clinical Oncology presented its findings during its annual meeting in Chicago and published them in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Daiichi Sankyo of Tokyo and AstraZeneca of the United Kingdom funded and developed the drug together.
The drug is taken until the patient can no longer tolerate it.
“A lot of people, including a lot of patients, will not have heard of HER2-low breast cancer before,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Shanu Modi.
“We finally have a HER2-targeted drug that for the first time can target that low level of HER2 expression,” Modi said. “This drug actually helps to define HER2-low breast cancer. It makes it, for the first time, a targetable population.”
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