Herceptin

Herceptin is the brand name of a drug called trastuzumab.  It's one of a new group of cancer drugs called monoclonal antibodies.  It is mainly used to treat women with advanced breast cancer.  Just recently in world trials it has also been shown to reduce the risk of recurance in patients with primary breast cancer.

How it works

Trastuzumab works by interfering with one of the ways in which breast cancer cells divide and grow.  Some breast cancer cells divide and grow when a protein that naturally occurs in the body, known as human epidermal growth factor, attaches itself to another protein, known as HER2, found on the surface of some breast cancer cells.

Trastuzumab blocks this process by attaching itself to the HER2 protein so that the epidermal growth factor cannot reach the breast cancer cells.  This stops the cells from dividing and growing.  Trastuzumab also works by attracting the body's own immune cells to help destroy the cancer cells.

Trastuzumab only works in people who have high levels of the HER2 protein.  It appears to have little effect in those who don't.  At the moment it seems that only about 1 in 5 women (20%) with breast cancer have tumours that will be sensitive to trastuzumab.

The Government needs to act as quickly as possible to make sure that this drug is available NOW; it is such an important advancement in the treatment of early aggressive breast cancer.  We need this on the NHS as soon as possible, it's not fair or right that only those that can afford private health care or who have friends and family that can fund- raise are in a position to have it.  I thought the health care system in this country was supposed to be classless.  Right about now I wish I lived in America... or Germany... or Spain...