A group of researchers from the Medical University of Vienna (Austria) has developed a drug that has been shown to be capable of partially or totally reversing brain metastasis in patients with breast cancer, which would open a new avenue to create a beneficial targeted therapy against this oncological complication.
Specifically, the new drug called T-Dxd is made up of a chemical mixture of an antibody against HER2 (trastuzumab) and a chemotherapy drug (deruxtecan). The tests to verify its effectiveness were carried out in a group of 14 women and one man over 18 years of age who had a diagnosis of HER2-positive breast cancer and brain metastases.
The trials consisted of the intravenous administration of a standard dose of 5.4 mg per kg of body weight on day 1 of each cycle with a periodicity of once every three weeks. Before the first injection of treatment, they underwent a cranial MRI, a bone scan, and a CT scan of the chest and abdomen, which were repeated later to observe the possible effects of the drug.
T-Dxd removed brain metastasis in two of 15 patients
The results, reported in the journal Nature Medicine, indicated that T-Dxd reduced brain metastasis in 73.3% of the participants and eliminated it completely in two of the 15 patients. Although it may not seem like much, the researchers have declared that it is a complete success, since, in addition to the above, they also observed that the drug did not cause deterioration in brain function, nor did it interfere with the quality of life of the participants during the duration of cancer treatment.
Approximately 15% of patients with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer have brain metastases
Another of the great advantages of this drug is that it has already been approved in the European Union by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in 2021, under the trade name of Enhertu®, whose purpose is the treatment of unresectable or metastatic epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) positive breast cancer. In other parts of the world it has also been given the green light, the most recent being the approval by the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week.
This prior approval means that, if the results of this research are verified, T-Dxd can now be used to treat patients with breast cancer who present with the complication of brain metastasis, something that happens in approximately 15% of those diagnosed with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.
“Our findings open completely new avenues for clinical research and treatment of brain metastases in breast cancer, and possibly in other cancers as well,” concludes Matthias Preusser, lead author of the study.
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