The Westmorland Gazette reports that a new drug called Perjeta, has been given the thumbs up to treat women with metastatic breast cancer in England. Metastatic breast cancer is when one’s cancer has already spread from the primary point, making it incurable stage four cancer.
With the recent approval of Perjeta by The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, also known as NICE, the life span is known to be extended for at least 16 months with the treatment of the new drug.
There is still a lot to be done with Perjeta, as Roche, the manufacturer of the drug, is still looking into how it will be funded in the long run. It was funded by the NHS this last year along with another breast cancer drug called Kadcyla. Their goal is to make sure that patients needing treatment are always in the know as to what drugs can be made available to them.
With the recent trials conducted by Roche, it has shown that when a patient is treated with Perjeta, Herceptin and docetaxel, they can live for about 16 more months. Most patients survival rate after diagnosis have 40.8 months to live, while those treated have 56.5 months.
In the UK alone, there are nearly 53,000 new breast cancer diagnoses and nearly a quarter of them are HER2-positive, making it fatal. The chief executive at Breast Cancer Now Baroness Delyth Morgan expressed his excitement and potential for the new drug. No other treatment has been able to get to this point, and he’s pleased that these families now get an extra 16 months of life to live. Not only is it life, but the treatment allows them to feel strong and able for a better quality of life. Often treatments leave one bed ridden and feeling sickly.