Excitement at lapatinib and trastuzumab combination's ground-breaking potential in shrinking breast cancer tumours

The finding that around a quarter of woman with HER2 positive breast cancer who were treated with lapatinib and trastuzumab saw their tumours shrink or disappear has ‘ground-breaking’ potential, an expert has said.

Women in the clinical trial, who had been newly-diagnosed with operable HER2 positive disease, were treated with a combination of the targeted drugs before surgery and chemotherapy.

Nigel Bundred, professor of surgical oncology at The University of Manchester and the University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust, presented results from the UK EPHOS-B multi-centre trial at the 10th European Breast Cancer Conference.