FDA Approves New Drug For Breast Cancer

Tuesday, March 13th 2007, 1:38 pm

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Women with advanced breast cancer that other treatments have failed to stop gained a new option Tuesday with the approval of a novel drug made by GlaxoSmithKline PLC.

The drug, Tykerb, is to be taken once daily in pill form and is meant for women who have received prior treatment with the intravenous drug Herceptin and cancer drugs called taxanes and anthracyclines, the company said. The Food and Drug Administration approved Tykerb for use in conjunction with the chemotherapy drug Xeloda.

The results of a study published last year showed that Tykerb in combination with Xeloda delayed tumor growth for an average of 8 1/2 months, or about twice as long when compared to treatment with Xeloda alone. Tykerb worked so well that the international study was stopped early and all participants were offered the drug.