UK's NICE issues final guidance on Herceptin

The UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), which evaluates clinical effectiveness for the National Health Service in England and Wales, has issued its final guidance on Swiss drug major's Herceptin (trastuzumab) for early breast cancer, only three months after the drug was licensed by European regulatory authorities. Confirming an earlier announcement (Marketletter August 7), the NICE recommends the use of Herceptin in early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer, "except where there are concerns about the woman's cardiac function."