NEJM: new drugs are expected to treat patients with malignant breast cancer

January 6, 2020 / BIOON / - recently, in a research report published in the International Journal New England Journal of medicine, scientists from Dana Farber Cancer Research Institute and other institutions found that two experimental drugs are expected to treat patients with malignant breast cancer Photo source: Kimberly P Mitchell / Detroit Free Press researchers say one of the drugs can show the ability to reach the brain effectively As we all know, many drugs can't reach the brain directly to kill the tumors transferred to the brain Another drug is a "homing device" for cancer cells, which can effectively load chemotherapy drugs and release them when they arrive at the destination Researcher Ian krop said the new treatment is like a missile that can introduce chemotherapy directly into cancer cells About 15% - 20% of breast cancer belongs to HER2 positive breast cancer, that is, there are a lot of HER2 proteins on the surface of cancer cells, which will be driven by the over activated genes that promote the growth of cancer; in this paper, the researchers tested 253 breast cancer patients with drugs called t-dxd, and injected them with the drug every three weeks, before using the experimental drug On average, 6 treatments were tried; the researchers analyzed the effects of different doses on patients, 184 of whom performed best In these patients, 61% of them found that their own tumors shrank by at least 30%, while in 6% of them, the researchers did not find signs of cancer in their bodies after two follow-up visits Although the experimental drug has not been compared with other drugs, its response rate is 3-4 times higher than the normal response rate; the median time of cancer deterioration is 16 months, and it will be very exciting to observe that the severe cancer can be effectively controlled for more than one year, said researcher krop The researchers pointed out that participants had more side effects, with about 60% of patients presenting with low blood cell count, nausea and anemia Or fatigue symptoms, and 15% of women stop treatment, the most serious is that there are 25 patients with lung inflammation, 4 of them died; this is the use of other drugs to treat this kind of cancer rare side effects, but it is more common experimental drugs, clinicians can closely observe the patient's condition, so as to take effective measures Because these cancers are usually proved to be fatal, the experimental drug is still beneficial for most patients Researcher Jennifer Litton said: 'we may be able to give patients some preventive anti-inflammatory drugs, but it's also important to take risks, because this experimental drug really shows great therapeutic potential The researchers said the experimental drugs could easily enter the brain to work, and half of the 612 participants had cancer spread to the brain In addition, all patients received conventional therapy, namely Herceptin and the chemotherapy drug Xeloda, combined with the treatment of tocatinib or placebo Two years later, 45% of patients with tocatinib survived, compared with 27% in the placebo group; a quarter of patients who had cancer spread to the brain survived, and a year later had tumors There was no deterioration, but the patients in the control group did not achieve this goal The patients in the tocatinib group generally had some side effects, such as diarrhea, fatigue, nausea and some liver side effects About 6% of the patients stopped treatment because of the side effects, while the control group was 3% Later researchers need to conduct more in-depth research to analyze the effectiveness of the experimental drugs The molecular mechanism of the treatment of malignant breast cancer Original sources: rashmi K Murthy, M.D., Sherene LOI, M.D., Alicia kings, M.D., et al Tucatinib, trastuzumab, and capsule for HER2 positive metastatic bread cancer, NEJM, December 11, 2019 doi: 10.1056/nejmoa1914609