FDA: Roche drug works in early-stage breast cancer
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration has issued a positive review of a breast cancer drug from Roche that could soon become the first pharmaceutical option approved for treating early-stage disease before surgery.
In documents posted online, FDA scientists said women who received the drug Perjeta as initial treatment for breast cancer were more likely to be cancer-free at the time of surgery than women who received older drug combinations. Although the results come from mid-stage trials of the drug, FDA scientists recommended accelerating approval of the drug.
That step is reserved for groundbreaking drugs to treat life-threatening diseases.
Perjeta was first approved last summer to treat women with a subtype of breast cancer that has already spread to other parts of the body. But Roche's Genentech unit is now seeking approval to use the drug at a much earlier stage of the disease: after diagnosis and before surgery to remove the tumor.
Surgery to remove tumors is the first step in treating virtually all forms of cancer. If approved, Perjeta would be the first cancer drug approved for use as a pre-surgical step. Using cancer drugs before surgery is still experimental, but doctors hope the approach could help shrink tumors to make them easier to remove. In some breast cancer cases, a tumor that is easier to operate on could allow women to keep their breasts, rather than having them surgically removed.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/fda-roche-drug-works-early-stage-breast-cancer
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