Herceptin improves stomach cancer survival-study

ORLANDO, Fla., May 31 (Reuters) - Herceptin, the breast cancer drug developed by Genentech, reduces the risk of death for certain stomach cancer patients by 26 percent compared with chemotherapy alone, according to new research.

The intravenous drug was tested in patients whose tumors express high levels of the HER-2 protein. Herceptin, or trastuzumab, is currently approved for use in the 25 percent or so of breast cancer patients whose tumors generate HER-2, which can fuel cancer growth.

Genentech, now a unit of Roche Holding AG (ROG.VX: Quote, Profile, Research), said high amounts of the HER-2 receptor are also found in about a quarter of patients with stomach cancer.

"This is the first phase III study to report improved overall survival with a personalized, targeted treatment for gastric cancer," Dr. Eric Van Cutsem, professor at the University Hospital Gasthuisberg in Leuven, Belgium, and lead author of the study, said in a statement.

Median overall survival was 13.8 months in the Herceptin plus chemotherapy group versus 11.1 months in the standard chemotherapy group.

Researchers said the treatment was generally well tolerated, and there were no unexpected side effects: the rate of symptomatic congestive heart failure was similar between the two groups. The incidence of decreased ventricular ejection fraction (a measure of the heart's pumping ability) was 5.9 percent in the trastuzumab group compared with 1.1 percent in the standard therapy group. (Reporting by Deena Beasley; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)