Abstract
MOST DOCTORS AREN'T ACCUSTOMED TO BEING GREETed like the Rolling Stones playing Madison Square Garden. But in spring 2005, at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncologists (ASCO), the clinicians reporting results from a trial of Genentech's breast cancer drug Herceptin got a taste of the rock star treatment. A packed auditorium of oncologists broke out in applause upon hearing that adding the monoclonal antibody to a patient's chemotherapy regimen after surgery nearfy halved the risk of the disease ever coming back In a field of incremental progress—new cancer drugs often extend a patient's life by just months rather than years—the news was considered a major breakthrough. Herceptin's success is based on its highly selective nature: The antibody binds to the HER2 receptor, a growth factor protein that is overexpressed in roughly 25% of breast cancer patients. First approved in the U.S. in 1998 to treat the most advanced cases of HER2-positive ...
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