CHICAGO — The cancer drug Enhertu stalled the growth of tumors by well over a year in a group of women with a type of metastatic but previously untreated breast cancer — study results reported Monday that the drug’s makers AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo believe could change the way the disease is treated for the first time in a decade.
Oncologists agree, and noted with astonishment that the efficacy of Enhertu and other drugs used to treat HER2-positive breast cancer can now be measured in years. The progress has opened up the possibility of different ways of using these drugs, perhaps even for a limited duration, to improve patients’ quality of life and reduce financial burdens, while maintaining their benefits.
“This is a pivotal advancement for the treatment of HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer,” said Rebecca Dent, an oncologist and breast cancer specialist at the National Cancer Center in Singapore.
