Women with HER2-positive breast cancer can take Roche Holding AG's Herceptin for a shorter treatment period, saving costs and minimizing side effects without compromising the drug's efficacy, according to a study funded by the U.K. National Institute for Health Research.
The Persephone trial — a £2.6 million study that enrolled over 4,000 women and was sponsored by the British government — found that 89.4% of patients who took Herceptin and received chemotherapy for six months were free of disease after four years, compared with 89.8% of those who underwent the same treatment for a year.
Herceptin, one of Roche's top-selling medicines, raked in CHF1.77 billion in the first quarter of 2018. The drug, also known as trastuzumab, generated CHF7.01 billion in full-year 2017 revenue for the Swiss pharmaceutical company.
The study also discovered that only 4% of patients in the six-month arm halted treatment due to heart problems, compared with 8% in the 12-month group, showing reduced side effects in those who underwent the shorter treatment period.
However, Helena Earl, lead author of the study, advised patients who are taking Herceptin medication to not change their treatment without seeking advice from their doctor. "There is more research to be done to define as precisely as possible the particular patients who could safely reduce their treatment duration," said Earl, a professor of clinical cancer medicine at the University of Cambridge and Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre.
Charles Swanton, Cancer Research UK's chief clinician, said the researchers will now determine which patients can stop receiving Herceptin at six months and which ones need extended treatment.
Results of the Persephone trial will be presented at the upcoming 2018 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting in Chicago in June.
