The Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of a new drug cocktail to treat hormone positive and HER2-positive breast cancer that affects more than 192,000 women every year.
The new cocktail, which consists of Tykerb (lapatinlb) and Femara (Letrozole), was approved after promising early examples of its effectiveness. Women with HER2-positive breast cancer went 35 weeks without seeing any progression of the disease. Patients using other treatments had only gone 13 weeks without progression
"This drug combination of Tykerb plus Femara provides women being treated for advanced breast cancer with an important treatment option. This entirely oral treatment regimen works by targeting both HER2 and the hormone receptors, thereby slowing the cancer cells” ability to grow or spread," said Dr. Richard Pazdur, the director of the Office of Oncology Drug Products for the FDA’’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.
Because the breast cancer treatment is only now being approved for expanded use, there is a chance that some health insurance plans may still not cover the costs for its use by breast cancer patients with their coverage.
For those who feel this may be the best method to treat their cancer but will not have all of their costs covered by their insurer, a short-term loan may be able to cover any cost differences when receiving treatment.
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