Latest Herceptin Stories

ZURICH (Reuters) - Roche on Monday unveiled new data showing that its cancer drug Herceptin increased the time that some breast-cancer patients live without the cancer progressing when used in combination with hormonal therapy. The Swiss pharmaceutical group Roche said the late-stage, or Phase III, trial results were for patients whose advanced breast cancer was hormone receptor-positive, as well as HER2-positive, a particularly aggressive form of the disease. Hormone receptor-positive...

ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss drug maker Roche said on Wednesday the European Union had approved its Herceptin cancer drug for use in patients in an early stage of the aggressive HER2-positive type of breast cancer. "The approval is based on... (a) study which showed Herceptin following standard chemotherapy significantly reduces the risk of cancer coming back by 46 percent compared to chemotherapy alone," Roche said in a statement. Herceptin was previously approved in the EU for treatment...

LONDON (Reuters) - A 37-year-old man with breast cancer was told on Monday his local NHS trust will fund treatment with the potentially life-saving drug Herceptin, a move that will add to the debate about its use and funding. Maidstone Weald Primary Care Trust said it had agreed to fund the treatment after considering Stuart Weaver's clinical needs and advice from his medical consultants. "We have just spoken with Mr Weaver and he was happy with the news," the trust said in a...

By Michael HoldenLONDON -- A British woman with early-stage breast cancer won a legal appeal on Wednesday to force her local health authority to pay for the potentially life-saving drug Herceptin."I feel like I've won the lottery," said Ann Marie Rogers, 54, who had called the initial decision by Swindon Primary Care Trust (PCT) not to give her the costly medication "a death sentence."The decision at London's Court of Appeal overturned an earlier High Court ruling that...

LONDON (Reuters) - A British woman with early-stage breast cancer went to the Court of Appeal in London on Monday in a bid to force her health authority to pay for the potentially life-saving drug Herceptin.Ann Marie Rogers, 54, is appealing against a High Court ruling last month that Swindon Primary Care Trust in Wiltshire need not pay for the costly medication, made by Switzerland's Roche.At an earlier hearing, the judge was told that Rogers felt as though she had been given "a death...

LONDON (Reuters) - A British woman with early-stage breast cancer lost a test case legal bid on Wednesday to force her health authority to pay for the potentially life-saving drug Herceptin, but vowed on Wednesday to continue her battle. High Court judge Justice Bean ruled that Swindon Primary Care Trust in Wiltshire, which had refused Ann Marie Rogers, 54, the costly drug treatment, need not pay for Herceptin, made by Switzerland's Roche. Summarising his decision, the judge said that...

LONDON (Reuters) - A woman with early-stage breast cancer went to the High Court on Monday in an attempt to force her local health authority to pay for the potentially life-saving drug Herceptin. Ann Marie Rogers, 54, was refused the drug after Swindon Primary Care Trust in Wiltshire said it would not fund the treatment, which costs around 20,000 pounds ($36,000) a year. Her counsel Ian Wise told the court the refusal had left Rogers feeling she had been given a "death sentence" and...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The breast cancer drug Herceptin, shown recently to improve survival in women with early-stage breast cancer, carries with it a risk of heart damage, but a chemotherapy regimen can limit the danger, researchers said on Thursday. Genentech Inc.'s Herceptin has been on the market since 1998 as a treatment for the 25 percent to 30 percent of breast cancer patients, who have tumors that generate a protein called HER-2 and whose cancer has spread beyond the breast....

By Matthew Jones LONDON (Reuters) - A British health authority on Wednesday reversed its decision not to give a breast cancer sufferer the potentially life-saving drug Herceptin after its chief executive met the mother of four. Elaine Barber's local health authority, North Stoke Primary Care Trust, had said it couldn't afford to prescribe the drug. Lawyers for Barber, 41, had been planning to take her case to the High Court and late on Tuesday Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt said the...

LONDON (Reuters) - A British woman suffering from breast cancer intends to go to the High Court to force her health authority to prescribe Herceptin, a drug she believes could prolong her life. Elaine Barber's local health authority, North Stoke Primary Care Trust, has said it can't afford to prescribe the drug. "We are looking at going to the High Court next week, Monday or Tuesday," said a representative from Barber's lawyers. "It will be the first time a Herceptin case has gone to...