Arimidex plus Herceptin improve survival in co-positives

Anglo-Swedish drug major AstraZeneca presented data at the 2006 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in Texas, USA, showing that postmenopausal women on its drug Arimidex (anastrozole) in combination with Roche's Herceptin (trastuzumab) had a significant improvement in progression-free survival when used for advanced breast cancer that was both human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER-2)-positive and hormone receptor-positive.

Approximately two thirds of breast cancer patients are hormone receptor-positive and, of these, nearly 25% have the HER-2 genetic mutation, which marks the presence of a protein that promotes the growth of cancerous cells, typically resulting in a more aggressive tumor.

The TAnDEM randomized clinical trial evaluating co-positive patients on the two drugs demonstrated an extended median progression-free survival of 4.8 months, representing an extension of 2.4 months over patients on Arimidex alone. The overall median survival for patients receiving both drugs was 28.5 months. "The combination of Arimidex plus Herceptin suggests a significant improvement in progression-free survival for this unique patient population, whose disease can be particularly aggressive," said Joseph Purvis, AstraZeneca's executive director of clinical oncology research.