Friday, February 22, 2013

Hopeful Breast Cancer news

While breast cancer is generally pretty treatable (given early detection and regular exams), some forms of the disease are especially pernicious. Now, the Feds have "approved a new "smart bomb" drug ... that can help women with one of the most hard-to-cure types of breast cancer."

Called Kadcyla, it attacks HER2-positive form of breast cancer; it's not necessarily a cure, but it does appear to add several months to victims' lives. It's actually a hybrid, combining an older drug (Herceptin) with the powerful chemo med DM1.

Does it work as advertised?

You be the judge:

"In a trial of 991 women with advanced HER2 breast cancer, those who got Kadcyla lived on average 5.8 months longer than those getting more standard chemotherapy ... meant about 2 ½ years of life after diagnosis, compared to two years for those on standard therapy."

Pretty convincing.

There's some bad news, though:

"A nearly 10-month course of therapy costs $94,000"

And who knows if it'll be covered under The ObamaTax. Not to mention the new taxes on medical device and other research companies.

Kadcyla, we barely knew ya.
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