SAN FRANCISCO - A new therapy, developed here in the Bay Area, is said to prolong the lives of breast cancer patients by nearly 16 months. Doctors said it's unprecedented.
Michelle Avery was diagnosed with breast cancer in September 2013. Doctors discovered she had cancer through her spine, and lesions on her liver. Her doctors elected for a treatment found to be successful in women with incurable HER2-positive breast cancer, which accounts for about 20 percent of breast cancer cases.
“And then to learn for the rest of your life, you're going to have to every three weeks do these infusions and I thought ‘oh my God, who could do that?’ But it's OK,” Avery said.
Doctors chose to treat Avery with Herceptin and Perjeta in addition to chemotherapy. When this method was tested in clinical trials, it expanded the patient's average life expectancy almost 16 months.
“This is a discovery that's unprecedented. We just don't see anything like this,” UCSF Professor of Medicine Dr. Hope S. Rugo said.
It’s uncommon because most breakthroughs in the past have only added a couple months to patient life expectancy, Rugo said.
The study also found patients given the cocktail of drugs lived nearly five years, compared to the usual lifespan of two to three years.
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"There are women who will be treated for this therapy who will never relapse. Their
disease will be controlled forever. In other words, an incurable disease in some patients will become curable,” Rugo said.
Both Herceptin and Perjeta were developed at Bay Area based Genentech. Doctors point out the therapy isn’t new, but the clinical trial showing its effectiveness is new. The findings were recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
"The study itself is the result of many years of research here at Genentech, in fact about 30 years, in really trying to understand what drives a subset of breast cancers,” Genentech Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sandra Horning said.
One of the drawbacks from the treatment is the price, which costs about $11,000 per month. Insurance companies cover some patients since it is FDA approved. Genentech also has a program to help people who can't afford it.
All of Michelle Avery’s tumors and lesions have disappeared. She'll continue the life-changing treatment for as long as she needs.
“It's been a year and a half, and so far it's been great,” she said.
