Doctors have praised Perjeta as the ‘biggest boost since Herceptin’ in breast cancer wellness, as the drug has been shown to cut your chance of dying by a third within three years of starting treatment. A fifth of patients are suitable for the established drug, which works in combination with Herceptin. If breast cancer affects your wellbeing, and there’s a particularly high level of a protein called HER2 in your cancer cells, you are eligible for Perjeta.
According to Dr David Miles, a consultant oncologist at Mount Vernon Cancer Centre near Watford, ‘Perjeta has been shown to extend survival and control cancer for longer than the current standard of care – showing a magnitude of benefit that has not been seen since the launch of Herceptin more than ten years ago. This marks a significant step forward in the treatment of this aggressive, difficult-to-treat disease.’
Perjeta is manufactured by Roche, and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has just given the company permission to market the drug across Europe. A year’s supply of the drug costs £31,135, and so the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), which rations expensive treatments, is still deliberating whether Perjeta should be made available as standard in the English and Welsh NHS. At present, however, women in England will be able to apply for it through the Cancer Drugs Fund.
A trial found that using Perjeta with Herceptin and chemotherapy cut the chance of dying within three years by 34%, compared to using Herceptin and chemotherapy alone. The Cleopatra study also found that the average time that tumours were stalled rose from 12.4 to 18.5 months with the use of the drug. However, the drug can have unpleasant side effects when used with Herceptin and chemotherapy, as two-thirds who have received the treatment also suffered from diarrhoea.
Yet Baroness Delyth Morgan, chief executive of Breast Cancer Campaign said the drug ‘should be made available to all women who will benefit from it as soon as possible. Perjeta has the potential to bring a significant, and precious, extension of life to around 2,000 women with advanced breast cancer each year, by preventing the cancer from progressing for longer than we’ve seen with other treatment combinations.’
Dr Emma Pennery, clinical director of the charity Breast Cancer Care, added, This drug, when combined with Herceptin and chemotherapy can provide a more effective, targeted treatment option to delay progression of this aggressive disease than Herceptin and chemotherapy alone, but with comparable side effects. The priority now must be that Perjeta is made widely accessible across the UK as soon as possible for patients with secondary breast cancer whose lives could be extended from its use.’
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