Breast cancer therapy news at SABCS

This year’s CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) in Texas, USA, heard of developments from several companies, including Generex, Novartis and Roche, presenting new data on existing and investigational treatments for breast cancer.

Among these, Generex Biotechnology (OTCBB: GNBT.OB) announced positive interim Phase II clinical data from its ongoing study of a novel Ii-Key Hybrid-based HER-2/neu Peptide Vaccine (AE37) in HER-2 expressing breast cancer patients. The AE37 vaccine is being developed by its wholly-owned subsidiary, Antigen Express.

"We are encouraged by the positive interim results in disease-free survival demonstrated in the randomized Phase II study with AE37 vaccine, especially in patients with low HER2 expression that are not currently eligible for Herceptin (trastuzumab, from Roche-Genentech)," said Eric von Hofe, president of Antigen Express, adding: "While the number of patients with recurrent breast cancer is still too low to demonstrate statistical significance in this ongoing study, we project a sufficient number of events in 2012 and expect to report final results during this period."