LMU researchers have successfully tested a new drug which can significantly extend the lives of breast cancer patients. Patients with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer very often develop brain metastases. When this happens, patients have low chances of surviving the next few years with existing therapies such as surgery and radiotherapy.
Now an international team of researchers under the co-lead of Professor Nadia Harbeck, Director of the Breast Center at LMU University Hospital, has tested a new drug in a clinical trial. "With great results," reports the oncologist. According to the findings to date, survival times increase substantially.
The results of the trial have been published in the journal Nature Medicine . Modern medicine divides breast cancer into different types according to tumorbiological characteristics. 50% of patients with advanced breast cancer and the tissue marker HER2 will suffer from brain metastases, which it has not been possible to treat successfully with drugs before now, as the blood-brain barrier often prevents active substances from penetrating into the brain.
New drugs are therefore urgently required. Precisely targeted antibody One of these active substances is a so-called antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) called "trastuzumab deruxtecan." Trastuzumab is an antibody which, once injected in the body, docks precisely to the HER2 protein.
Its payload is the active ingredient deruxtecan, which kills cancer cells and is active in the tumor tissue and h.