New hope for patients with less common breast cancer

WASHINGTON, June 02 (AFP): A new treatment nearly halves the risk of disease progression or death from a less common form of breast cancer that hasn't seen major drug advances in over a decade, researchers reported Monday.

Results from the study, presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology, are expected to be submitted to regulators and could soon establish a new first-line therapy for people with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer-the advanced stage of a form that comprises 15-20 percent of all breast cancer cases.

HER2-positive cancers are fueled by an overactive HER2 gene, which makes too much of a protein called human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 that helps cancer cells grow and spread.