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Breast Cancer Chemo Combo

By Holly Ames/Medstar

A treatment that helps make life easier for women battling recurrent breast cancer. Breast Cancer Chemo Combo

Published: Wed, October 17, 2007 - 2:42 pm Last Updated: Wed, October 17, 2007 - 3:13 pm

Women surviving with recurrent breast cancer, such as Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of presidential candidate John Edwards are becoming more common.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and a good time to focus on a new treatment that helps patients manage and control advanced recurrent breast cancer without the side effects of chemo.

Enjoying moments with her husband is a daily grace for Margie Rogers as she battles breast cancer for the second time. "Well I was very upset, needless to say. I had just met Raymond the Christmas before and we were dating." Margie is living a contented life while managing her breast cancer as a chronic condition.

Dr. Charles Geyer is a medical oncologist. He says, "When women develop recurrence of breast cancer, you frequently, ultimatley get the question, 'how much time do I have?' and the honest answer is we really have no idea. When we didn't have therapies, we unfortunately had a very good idea."

A study aimed at increasing the lifespan for this group compared the chemotherapy drug, Xeloda, to a combination of Xeloda and Tykerb, a new drug that targets the HER2 protein.

Dr. Geyer says, "There's an activating, almost an electrical signal, that gets amplified through the HER2 molecule and the Tykerb gets in and cuts that signal off." By interrupting that growth signal, the combination improved time without progression of disease by 50 percent. He goes on to say, "Adding the Tykerb didn't seem to increase side effects to a large degree. So you got both sides: better therapy without a lot of extra toxicity."

In this "maintenance" phase, Margie is keeping her expectations level. Margie says, "I don't have any illusions about what might be down the line, I , I don't, because it's there. It's not going to go away. But, every day that I get's another day." And each day is a gift to cherish.

Margie takes five Tykerb pills each morning, and can do so for as long they help maintain her condition. The combination treatment of Xeloda and Tykerb received approval from the FDA in March of 2007 for treatment of women with advanced or metastatic breast cancer.