More news on Cancer

Three studies recently done in the US and in England show evidence supporting the idea that the drug Herceptin boosts the chances of disease-free survival by 52% of women who are diagnosed certain types of breast cancer.

Breast cancer currently kills about 20% of women who are diagnosed each year. About 25% of those diagnosed with breast cancer have HER2-positive cancer, the type that appears to be successfully treatable with Herceptin.

This is especially encouraging because HER2-positive breast cancer is very aggressive, with an average survival time less than half that of women with other types of breast cancer.

This is not a new drug (it was approved for treatment of advanced breast cancer in 1998). It is however only now being used on women with early stages of cancer (with remarkable results)

The challenge is that this procedure still has to undergo additional testing and approval processes. Part of the issue here is that cancer survival rates are normally measured after 5 years - meaning that large-scale tests have to be conducted for at least 5 years to truly determine effectiveness.

Tough decision for the FDA - do they approve it early, taking the risk that other problems will arise later in the drug's life (currently 4% of women taking this drug develop symptoms of congestive heart failure and there could be more risks with long-term use), or do they wait?
Not enough testing has been done so far to judge the long-term effects of Herceptin, but studies appear to be encouraging.