Since the dawn of time, physicians and healers have been searching for a cure for cancer. Bone cancer has been discovered in mummies dating back to 1600 BC, and the word “cancer” appears in the writings of the Greek physician Hippocrates. In modern times, pharmaceutical companies have invested billions of dollars into finding ways to cure cancer.
To date, treatments like chemotherapy, radiation, and surgical removal have proven the most common and effective options for getting rid of tumors. However, as one clinical trial in 2016 discovered, there may be a potential new solution for curing cancer—specifically, breast cancers.
That solution: a combination of lapatinib and Herceptin.
Don’t know what those are? Don’t worry, we’re about to do a deep dive into both!
In this post, we’ll take a brief look at the history of cancer cures and what options are currently available, before moving on to the results of the fascinating study conducted in the UK that showed the benefits of using these two targeted treatments.
We’ll examine what type of breast cancer this combination therapy is best suited for, what possible side effects are, and wrap up with a final look at what the future may hold for the treatment of human breast cancer.
Cancer research has been ongoing for millennia, with scientists and doctors attempting to identify, diagnose, and treat it. However, the greatest strides of progress have come in the last 250 years.
According to one report from the National Cancer Institute titled “Milestones in Cancer Research and Discovery” [1], here are some of the biggest occurrences in this field of medicine:
As you can see, the identification and treatment of cancers have come a long way over the last 250 years!
At the beginning of this post, we mentioned a 2016 study that involved lapatinib and Herceptin, combining the two therapies into one to address breast cancer.
We will share with you all the data below, but before we do, there are a few things you need to understand.
First, what are Lapatinib and Herceptin?
Both drugs are individually used to treat breast cancer, specifically HER2 positive breast cancer.
Lapatinib blocks the HER2 proteins inside breast cancer cells. It’s a kinase inhibitor that interferes with HER2-related kinases that give the cancer cells the ability to grow and multiply.
Herceptin, on the other hand, blocks HER2 proteins on the surface of breast cancer cells. It attaches to the HER2 receptors on cancer cells and stops them from receiving signals to multiply and grow. It can also alert the immune system to treat the cancer cells as hostile and eradicate them.
The study focused on HER2-Positive Breast Cancer, a subtype of breast cancer that (as you may recall from the information above) is highly aggressive and invasive. It contributes to the formation of around 1 in every 5 breast cancers.
HER2-Positive breast cancer is marked by high levels of a protein called “human epidermal growth factor receptor 2”, which controls how your cells divide and grow. When present in high levels, this protein can cause cells to divide and grow out of control, leading to higher rates of cancer formation as well as greater risk of metastasis.
The 2016 study [2] focused specifically on treating this type of breast cancer, using two drugs that have been previously used on their own. As you’ll see by the data below, the combination therapy led to a statistically significant difference!
Scientists funded by Cancer Research UK found that a pair of drugs–Lapatinib and Herceptin (generic name: trastuzumab)—were able to eliminate breast cancer in just 11 days, without the need for chemotherapy or surgery.
The study involved women with HER2 positive breast cancers. 257 female breast cancer patients participated in the study, and 130 of patients treated were assigned at random to one of three groups:
The results of the 11-day treatment period were remarkable! The women who received a combination of these two drugs were more likely to show visible results. 7 of the 66 women treated with the drugs had NO cancer cells remaining after two weeks of medication. 11 more women showed dramatic shrinkage in their tumor sizes.
In a 2017 meta-analysis [3], the results of 7 randomized controlled trials including more than 2000 women were reviewed to determine the effectiveness of the combination of these two drugs (Herceptin and Lapatinib).
According to the study, “the combination of lapatinib and trastuzumab significantly improved pathological complete response, event-free survival, overall survival, and toxicities in the treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer compared with trastuzumab or lapatinib alone.”
What’s cool about the combination of drugs is that the size and hormone receptor status of the tumors didn’t affect the outcome. Even if the solid tumors were larger, they were visibly affected (shrunk) by the combination of these two medications.
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Now, it’s important to know that there are downsides to the drug combination. According to the meta-analysis, “more frequent grade 3 or 4 adverse events…were found in the combination group than in the trastuzumab or lapatinib group.”
These “adverse events” include:
Pairing the two medications can have more visible negative effects than simply using them alone.
But compare that to the kind of effects you’d get while undergoing chemotherapy or radiation treatment:
The side effects of this drug combination are far less debilitating or weakening than the sort of side effects common to the stronger, more invasive forms of cancer treatment.
Could this be the first step toward a new way of fighting cancer?
There is still a lot of research yet to be done. Scientists need to dig deeper through further clinical trials to find out if these drugs can not only kill off existing tumor cells, but also prevent invasive breast cancer recurrence.
However, the good news is that this discovery could lead researchers in a new direction to deal with cancers without the need for invasive surgeries, harsh radiation, or potent chemotherapy drug cocktails. This could be a huge step forward in the war on one of the deadliest, most terrifying diseases in the world today!
As cancer research continues to reveal how much our internal environment matters, supporting the body’s natural detoxification systems becomes even more essential. Removing toxins efficiently not only contributes to overall health and vitality, but may also reduce the internal stressors that can compromise immune resilience.
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Both lapatinib and Herceptin are HER2 inhibitors, meaning they interrupt the pathways by which the HER2 proteins promote the abnormal cell growth—which ultimately leads to the growth of cancer cells. Some HER2 inhibitors block the HER2 protein on the cell surface, while others target the protein already present inside the cell. There are also HER2 inhibitors that stop the cell from receiving signals to grow or trigger an immune response so the body naturally eradicates the cancerous cells on its own.
Herceptin is a form of immunotherapy that targets the HER2 receptors on cancer cells. It is often used alongside chemotherapy drugs (to great effect), but is not a chemotherapy treatment. It simply helps your immune system identify cancer cells (specifically, the HER2 receptors on the cancer cells) for destruction by your own immune cells.
Drinking alcohol and smoking while on Herceptin can be an increased risk to cardiac safety, potentially damaging to your heart, as well as reduce the effectiveness of the treatment. Certain herbal supplements—like St. John’s Wort, ginseng, milk thistle, and black cohosh—can negatively interact with Herceptin and affect how the immunotherapy drug is processed by your body. Given that you’re taking Herceptin to treat cancer, you should also avoid any cancer-causing foods, including high-sugar foods, processed and artificial foods, and foods high in trans and saturated fats.
HER2-positive breast cancer: What is it?
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