Targeted Treatments Offer New Hope for Breast Cancer

In the past couple of years, there have been some exciting new treatments for breast cancer. This progress comes from better ways of studying cancer genes and how the immune system reacts to cancer. Scientists are also now designing drugs faster, testing them more accurately in the lab, and making them target cancer cells more directly. Because of all this, drug trials are more successful and the side effects of treatment are getting milder.

Back in 2007, New Zealand started funding a drug called Herceptin. At the time, it was a big breakthrough because it could slow down the growth of a certain type of breast cancer called Her2+. Today, scientists are using Herceptin and similar drugs in even better ways. For example, they’re attaching powerful cancer-killing chemicals to these drugs so they can deliver the treatment straight into the cancer cells. One of these drugs, trastuzumab emtansine, has been tested for 10 years and was shown to cut the chances of cancer coming back in half for some patients.

Now, researchers are using this same approach to treat other types of breast cancer too, even those that don’t have the Her2+ marker. These special drugs are called antibody-drug conjugates.

A team at the University of Otago, led by Associate Professor Allan Gamble, is working on improving these drugs so they’re even more accurate and cause fewer side effects. Breast Cancer Cure has helped fund this research, and it’s already making a difference for people in New Zealand and around the world.