Herceptin found to help women without mutant gene HER2

WASHINGTON A new study shows that Herceptin, a drug for breast cancer patients can also be used to lower the risk of relapse in patients with or without the gene mutation, according to published reports.

Herceptin is manufactured by San Francisco-based Genentech and was approved in 1998. The purpose of the drug is to block the excess of HER2 proteins that are said to help the growth of tumors.

According to published reports, the study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, included a trial of 1,787 women that had an early stage of breast cancer. The study showed that Herceptin did lower the risk of relapse but also found that 10.6 percent of patients with the HER2 gene mutation had the tumor spread, and about 8.5 percent of women with the normal form of HER2 had their disease become worse.

Even though the research is surprising, researchers are very careful about deeming it completely effective. Anne Blackwood-Chirchir, Genentech’s group medical director, said of these findings that “the number of patients are small, and whenever we work with small numbers, we need to question it a bit.”

According to published reports, Herceptin is the third biggest product in the company and made U.S. sales of $1.29 billion in 2007. Stocks for Genentech rose 2 percent ($1.64) to $82.01.