Drug breakthrough in SA
Revolutionary new early stage breast cancer treatment has been approved for use
CHELSEA GEACH AND ZANELE SOKATSHA
A NEW drug that could revolutionise treatment for some breast cancer patients has finally been approved for use in South Africa.
This drug not only drastically improves the chances of being cured of early stage breast cancer, but can also prolong the life of those suffering from late-stage metastatic breast cancer.
Brazilian oncologist and breast cancer researcher Dr Carlos Barrios visited the country last week to discuss this newly available treatment option with local doctors.
“This is probably the largest advance we have had in breast cancer over the last 20 years,” Barrios said.
Breast cancer affects 2 million women every year worldwide, causing the deaths of 500000 annually.
Breast cancer is the type which affects South African women most.
This treatment targets one specific type of breast cancer, which accounts for 20% of all breast cancer cases.
It is particularly aggressive and fast growing, and is characterised by excessive HER2 receptors on the cells of the cancerous tissue. These receptors cause the cells to grow much larger and faster than they should.
A breakthrough treatment in this type of cancer has been to inject the patient with antibodies, which block the HER2 receptors. These antibodies need to be injected every three weeks, at the same time as the patient is receiving chemotherapy.
The first antibody medication that was developed is called trastuzumab (Herceptin), which was developed in the late 1990s.
Used together with chemotherapy, this treatment can cure 75% of early stage breast cancer patients, Barrios said.
However, if you combine this approach with a second antibody called pertuzumab (Perjeta®), the results are even more impressive.
“Using both antibodies, you get a more profound and complete blocking of the receptor,” Barrios said.
“It leads to better results, curing a significantly larger group of patients.”
With trastuzumab added to chemotherapy, it is possible to prolong the life of an advanced-stage patient by 40 months.
Add pertuzumab into the cocktail, and this number jumps to 56 months – an advancement which Barrios hails as revolutionary and the biggest achievement in breast cancer treatment in the past two decades.
It is this drug, pertuzumab, which was just approved by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra).
Pharmaceutical company, Roche, Anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Kathrada was yesterday described by many as a person who always sacrificed so much for others and put other people before himself.
Struggle veterans Andrew Mlangeni, Sophie Williams-de Bruyn and former speaker of the National Assembly Frene Ginwala, honoured Kathrada with the unveiling of a life-size bronze statue at the Cradle of Humankind heritage site in Magaliesburg, west of Johannesburg.
The sculpture of Kathrada is an addition to those of Struggle icons Nelson Mandela, Winnie Madikizela-mandela, Albertina and Walter Sisulu, Oliver and Adelaide Tambo, Bantu Steve Biko and many others.
These heroes of the liberation Struggle were being honoured in The Long March to Freedom – a procession of 400 individuals who struggled against oppression in South Africa from the early 1700s to Freedom Day in April 1994.
Kathrada Foundation Board chairperson Derek Hanekom said it was not only about the unveiling of Uncle Kathy’s statue, “but seeing all these statues, the 100 statues, which is supplying the medications in South Africa.
Spokesperson Dr Kgothatso Motsumi said trastuzumab has been available in the country from around 2009 in private practice, but only entered public hospital use around the end of 2017 and beginning of last year.
Pertuzumab, however, was only just approved for use in the country a month ago.
Motsumi said it is already available in private practice, but not yet in state hospitals. “We are working with the state to also make sure it’s available,” Motsumi said.
“Both sectors deserve the best treatment there is.”