Genetech
developed a drug against a specific subset of metastatic breast cancer, called
HER2-positive mBC. This drug targets the HER2 receptor and blocks it from
activating downstream signals by receptor dimerization. This is an awesome
accomplishment, but what is made to sound so exciting, is really just Genetech
combining the drugs they already have created, and see if they improve patient
outcome even more so. It’s a pretty standard process, if you target the cancer
in different ways, you are more likely to destroy the cancerous tissue. This concept has already been used to combat
AIDS by giving people a cocktail of drugs.
The drug they are calling Perjeta (which you have to love these names!) is a combination of Herceptin (which interferes with HER2, part of the EGF-superfamily) and docetaxel (which interferes with the microtubule cytoskeleton). The name Perjecta is derived from the concept of “personalized” medicine, where they examine the cancer and see what genes and hence proteins are mutated, and target them specifically to a person. This way if a person does not have a problem with the HER2 protein and pathway, they would not be treated with this drug combination.
Their data
will be submitted for presentation at an upcoming medical meeting. And Dr.
Barron, chief medical officer and head of Global Product Development is excited that there is an improvement in
survival in the CLEOPATRA (Clinical Evaluation Of Pertuzumab And TRAstuzumab) study. There are a whole bunch of side effects which
include diarrhea, hair loss, low
white blood cell count with or without fever, upset stomach, fatigue, rash and
peripheral neuropathy (numbness, tingling or damage to the nerves). The most
common Grade 3-4 adverse reactions (rate greater than 2 percent) were low white
blood cell count with or without fever, decrease in a certain type of white
blood cell, diarrhea, damage to the nerves, and decrease in red blood cell
count, weakness and fatigue. But if you survive cancer, I expect people are
willing to accept the side effects during treatment. Although, I’m not sure I’d
be too excited about damaging my nerves.
