FDA approves new breast cancer drug

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
The Israel Cancer Association (ICA) welcomed the US Food and Drug Administration announcement Wednesday that it had granted approval for the marketing of Tykerb, a drug for women with metastatic breast cancer that no longer responds to Herceptin. The FDA examined studies showing that when Tykerb (of GlaxoSmithKline) is given along with the drug Xeloda, another breast cancer drug from Roche Pharmaceuticals, the disease is kept under control better than with Xeloda alone. Tykerb is not in Israel's basket of health services, but it will probably be proposed for inclusion next year. The ICA said Tykerb, which prevents further decline of cancer in women with metastases, is yet another tool to fight common malignancies and to raise the recovery rate.