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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 The researchers found that more deaths occurred in the observation group than in the Herceptin group -- 90 vs. 59, which corresponds to a survival benefit of 2.7 percent after three years.
In the case of Herceptin, timing is apparently everything.
"Many studies take many years to give an answer," Brooks said. "The thing that's so profound in these studies is that the benefit is seen so early. This is a very, very active agent. That's really important. You don't need to wait to get the information."
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According to the study authors, only the drug tamoxifen has shown a similar survival benefit in such a short period of time.
There were, however, some serious side effects among women taking Herceptin, namely cardiac damage.
"That is a problem. It has to be monitored carefully, particularly in patients who have some underlying heart disease," Cassell said.
But an accompanying comment paper in the journal pointed out that "the risk of cardiac damage seems trivial compared with that of breast cancer recurrence."
More information
Visit the U.S. National Cancer Institute for more on breast cancer.
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