NOT A CURE, BUT...

Sisters, 1993

Sundays I usually go out to Bay View Cemetery to visit Linda.  I sweep off our stone, water her flowers, and chop back any long grass that is beginning to encroach on our territory.  I talk to her a little, usually telling her the family news and what I’ve been up to, and sometimes I give her hell for leaving me so soon - sadly, of course.  About then I start feeling very sad. and I promise her I will keep on fighting ovarian cancer until they carry me away.  The problem lately has been that I haven’t been going to Seattle at all regularly – to help if possible, and to get inspiration and enlightenment.  This leaves me with only my blog, and sources of cancer news I can dig up myself (with the welcome help of several of you.)  I also have been fixated on the medical miracle occurring at children’s Hospital in Seattle.  It appears that my great grandson’s (very serious) operation is a resounding success!  The whole brood will be here next Tuesday, and I am happy at the thought.  Go, Seamus!  Linebacker at U.W., then Nobel Laureate in medicine loom in the future.  Or something equally bright.

So, anyway, the NY Times carries an article about a recent clinical trial performed by the Swiss pharma company, Roche.  They call their drug Perjeta.  Bio-chemically it’s known as pertuzumab.  (You remember what “mab” stands for, right?)  It is used in the case of metastatic breast cancers, and has been shown to prolong life by some 16 months.  Sixteen months more than the current standard treatment allows.  The median survival was 41 months; not a cure, for sure, but far better than nothing.

Perjeta is administered together with another Roche drug, Herceptin, which has been a big winner for Roche (and for many women, I suppose).  As always there is a down side: the two drugs together cost more than $11,000 PER MONTH, in the United States.  The article makes soothing noises about this being less than some newly approved cancer drugs.  Yeah, maybe so – it’s still about $450,000 for 41 months. 

How does it work?  Well, it is a suppressor of the protein coded for by the gene HER2, which is a tumor-accelerator in some forms of breast cancer (about 20-30% of them, apparently).  Other sources describe HER2 as a “proto-oncogene”.  HER2 stands for “human epidermal growth factor 2”.  None of that explains what it really does, of course – and 30 minutes of diligent research left me in total ignorance.  I will take it on faith.  My final comment:  41 months of extended life ain’t a cure, at all – but  it’s better than nothing.

Here’s the link:  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/29/business/roche-breast-cancer-drug-appears-to-greatly-extend-patients-lives.html?ref=health