Roche “making significant progress” in fight against breast cancer

Roche has said new data shows its drugs – Herceptin, Xeloda and Avastin – help patients with early and advanced breast cancer to live longer.

The research also found subjects can remain disease-free for a greater period of time, if the medicines are given before and after surgery.

Data presented at the CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) showed phase III study results into Herceptin, which found the therapy – in combination with chemotherapy – gave women with locally advanced HER2-positive breast cancer a greater chance of living free of the disease three years after initiation of treatment.

Early data from other research found Zeloda may also reduce the recurrence of early breast cancer, with Avastan able to be used with a broad range of chemotherapy treatments – giving patients a median of almost ten months without their disease getting worse.

William Burns, chief executive officer of Roche Pharmaceuticals, said: “Researching new cancer treatments is a complex step by step process. Each success helps lay the foundation for the next step.”

“We are making significant progress towards giving doctors and their breast cancer patients better and more effective treatment options.”

Based in Basel, Switzerland, Roche’s sales in the pharmaceutical division reached 36.8 billion Swiss francs (20.7 billion pounds) in 2007.