After gaining fame for producing a vaccine against the COVID-19 virus, the British company AstraZeneca announced the development of a drug for breast cancer that reduces the risk of death or worsening symptoms by 72% compared to current treatments. The British pharmaceutical company stated that the results of its trial for the new drug, Enhertu, were "groundbreaking," showing a "strong trend toward improving survival rates for patients with the disease," according to The Independent.
The trial involved approximately 500 patients undergoing other treatments across Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania, and South America. The company noted that the drug's efficacy is high, especially since the majority of patients treated with Enhertu "remained alive after 12 months (94.1%) compared to 85.9% of patients treated with the conventional drug trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1)."
Susan Galbraith, the Executive Vice President for Oncology Research and Development at the company, stated, "These unprecedented data represent a potential paradigm shift in the treatment of HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer."
Additionally, Javier Cortés from the International Breast Cancer Center in Barcelona pointed out that "patients previously treated for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer usually experience disease recurrence in less than a year, but Enhertu may become the new standard of care for those who have been treated for this type of cancer."
