European scientists revealed the most exclusive cancer fact. It involves breast cancer, which is the most common type of cancer that affects women. Statistics shows that one in eight American women develops breast cancer.
Breast cancer breakthrough
Nigel Bundred presented his study at the European Breast Cancer Conference in Amsterdam. He revealed the effectiveness of Herceptin and Lapatinib. These drugs are used in the treatment of breast cancer and other solid tumors.
These drugs are often used in breast cancer treatments, but this was the first time these two are used together. The good thing about this is the fact that they are used prior chemo and surgeries. The results of this study showed that these drugs can destroy breast cancer cells in 11 days. Amazing!
His research was funded by the Cancer Research UK with the purpose to use the potential of these drugs and destroy HER2. It is a protein that reduces tumor growth and multiplication. This growth factor is more likely to come back than any other cancer type.
This will come as a surprise to you. This treatment eliminates every need of surgery and chemotherapy. It does not harm the body, which means that patients do not lose hair loss, and do not experience with fatigue, vomiting, and other side effects. Chemo drugs are not that effective, so any other alternative is more than acceptable.
Study results
This promising study involved 257 women. They were all diagnosed with HER2 positive breast cancer. Half of these women received the aforementioned drug combination. The rest were part of the control group. It turned out that 11 percent of the women in the first group were cancer free within two weeks. About 17 percent of these women had their tumor shrunk.
Women who received Herceptin had no cancer cells, and only 3% of the women had reduced tumors. This means that both drugs are more efficient when used together.
This is an awesome step in the fight against deadly cancer, but it sure requires further research. If researchers keep up with the good work, we may soon get the cure in our hands.
Source: Best Healthy Guide