Combination of Herceptin, Tykerb effective against certain gastric cancers, study finds

A combination of two targeted therapies already shown to be effective in breast cancer has been found to pack an effective one-two punch against a subset of gastric cancers with a specific genetic mutation, according to a study by UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. The drugs Herceptin and Tykerb, when given together, proved to significantly inhibit tumor growth in gastric cancers with amplified levels of HER2, a mutation that results in an aggressive form of the disease, causing the cancers to grow and spread faster. The work was done both on cell lines and in animal models with human HER2-amplified gastric cancers. Between 18 and 27 percent of gastric cancers exhibit HER2 amplification, so the finding — if confirmed in humans — could provide a new, more effective and less toxic treatment option for tens of thousands of patients diagnosed worldwide each year with gastric cancers that carry the mutation, said Dr. Zev Wainberg, a Jonsson Cancer Center researcher and the study's first author. "This study adds further support to the concept that if you target a specific gene in gastric cancer, a more tailored treatment approach can be considered," said Wainberg, a UCLA assistant professor of hematology-oncology. "This study also provides further proof to what we already know — that gastric cancer is ripe for the development of targeted therapies." Herceptin, developed based on basic and clinical research done in Jonsson Cancer Center laboratories, has been combined with chemotherapy with great success to treat, first, women with HER2-amplified metastatic breast cancer and, later, women with earlier stages of the disease.