PEORIA, Ill. — A new trial for breast cancer has made its way to Illinois.
Illinois CancerCare is the only practice in the state to offer a new clinical trial to a group of breast cancer patients who are HER2-positive.
The clinical trial has recently been prompted by the Federal Food and Drug Administration to grant accelerated approval of a new treatment using TUKYSA (tucatinib) tablets with the current treatment for patients with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer.
The trial, HER2CLIMB, had results released in December 2019 and offered hope for patients.
HER2CLIMB is the first evidence from a clinical trial showing a target agent can improve survival for HER2-positive breast cancer that has spread to the brain.
Around 279,100 new cases of breast cancer are predicted to be diagnosed this year, and 15-20% of those cases will be HER2-positive.
Those who are HER2-positive have tumors with high levels of protien that are called human epidermal growth factor receptors, which promote the growth of cancer cells.
