New drug available for metastic breast cancer

An ongoing main study (Destiny-Breast01) showed that Enhertu was effective at shrinking the tumour in patients with metastatic breast cancer or breast cancer that could not be removed by surgery. All patients had previously received two or more HER2-based treatments.

Enhertu is used to treat breast cancer that is metastatic(has spread to other parts of the body) or cannot be removed by surgery.

The tumour shrank in around 61% of 184 patients treated with Enhertu and on average controlled the disease for approximately 20 months

It can only be used in breast cancers that ‘overexpress HER2’: this means that the cancer produces a protein called HER2 in large quantities on the surface of the tumour cells, which makes the tumour cells grow more quickly.

Enhertu is used on its own, in patients who have received two or more HER2-targeted treatments, including trastuzumab and TDM1. It contains the active substance trastuzumab deruxtecan.

For more details, follow the links below

https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/medicines/human/EPAR/enhertu

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/TA704/chapter/1-Recommendations

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa1914510

https://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/81/4_Supplement/PD3-06