Shorter Herceptin breast cancer treatment may produce better results

Breast cancer patients who receive the drug Herceptin for nine weeks as part of their post-surgery chemotherapy regime may enjoy better health outcomes, according to new research led by UCL, compared to those who receive it for 12 months, the period currently recommended in the English NHS. The researchers calculated that switching to the nine-week course of Herceptin could also save the NHS over £100 million a year. The study, a cost-effectiveness analysis of Herceptin, was published in the journal PLOS ONE . Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in several countries, including the UK and US. Around a quarter of women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer have HER2-positive tumours, meaning that their tumours have an overactive human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) gene and are more aggressive. In these patients, adding Herceptin to the post-surgery chemotherapy regime has led to significant increases in survival rates and the amount of time before patients suffer a recurrence of the disease. However, Herceptin is expensive and can cause side effects, the most serious of which is potentially life-threatening heart problems.