Breast Cancer advancement!

Isn't it interesting how alert you become when something like cancer happens to your wife or close loved one. I knew of breast cancer awareness with the pink ribbon initiatives at sporting events prior to my wife's diagnosis but I never really tracked what was going on in breast cancer related studies or treatment advances.

Now I cannot read a paper, magazine or online news feed without noticing them. I came across this one in the Salt Lake City Deseret News the other day and thought I would break it down in my blog for you.

The title was:

FDA approves breast cancer drug

Recommended by Katie Ardmore, Deseret News

Published: Friday, Feb. 22 2013 11:23 a.m. MST

Anytime there is a new drug approved for use I get excited as a new drug means one thing to me, the possibility of fewer severe side effects. That is what this drug hopes to provide to the average patient.

"The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved a new type of drug that combines the widely used breast cancer medicine Herceptin with a powerful toxin to more effectively kill cancer cells while potentially reducing side effects."

Anything that can run down and kill cancer cells while keeping a patients down time limited due to horrible side effects is a great find.

"The drug, which will be called Kadcyla but was known as T-DM1 during its development, extended the median survival of women with advanced breast cancer by nearly half a year in a clinical trial.

 It is approved for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer, about 20 percent of cases."

The drug is pricy but you cannot discount anything with positive results. You can read more at: Cancer drugs on New York Times.