UK NICE says benefits of breast cancer drugs Tyverb and Herceptin still unproven

In a draft guidance issued last Friday, the UK’s drug watchdog, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) said that the clinical and cost effectiveness of two breast cancer drugs that may be offered alongside hormone therapy to some postmenopausal women who have a particular type of the disease has not been clearly demonstrated and therefore recommends .against their use in the National Health Service for this condition.

The draft guidance looks at the use of GlaxoSmithKline’s (LSE: GSK) Tyverb (lapatinib) or Roche’s (ROG: SIX) Herceptin (trastuzumab) as a first-line treatment for a specific type of advanced breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body (metastatic) The appraisal only looks at their use alongside a type of hormone therapy called an aromatase inhibitor. This combination is used when the breast cancer cells have receptors for the hormone oestrogen and also high levels of a protein called HER2 or erbB2, the NICE noted.

Postmenopausal women who choose not to have chemotherapy, or for whom it is not a suitable option, are most likely to be offered aromatase inhibitors, either by themselves, or in combination with one of these drugs.