Tykerb has been approved by the FDA for use in conjunction with the chemotherapy drug Xeloda. Tykerb is a cancer medication that more precisely targets tumors without killing lots of healthy cells in the process.

Herceptin and Tykerb target a protein called HER-2/neu but work in different ways. Herceptin targets the outside of the HER2 protein and Tykerb works from the inside of the cell. This difference can give advanced breast cancer patients another drug to switch to if Herceptin stops working for them.

Glaxo said that Tykerb will be available in two weeks. The results of a study showed that Tykerb worked so well that the international study was stopped early and all the participants were offered the drug.

The FDA said it was too early to know if women taking Tykerb and Xeloda would live longer than those taking the latter drug alone.

Dr. Steven Galson, FDA drugs chief, said "Today's approval is a step forward in making new treatments available for patients who have progression of their breast cancer after treatment with some of the most effective breast cancer therapies available."

Results published at the annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, said that Abraxane in combination with Xeloda may be an effective treatment option for patients with metastatic breast cancer.

Abraxane is a newer form of Taxol that uses albumin, a natural protein found in the body, to deliver high concentrations of the active ingredient into the cancer cells and has fewer side effect than Taxol. Abraxane treatments last around 30 minutes compared with 3 hours for Taxol.

Researchers conducted a small clinical trial that included 38 patients with metastatic breast cancer. Complete disappearance of cancer was achieved in nearly 9 percent of patients. Partial responses were achieved in about 44 percent of patients. Disease stabilization was seen in almost 33 percent of study participants.

Even though the study was a small one, researchers conclude that it appears that treatment with Abraxane and Xeloda may be effective for patients with metastatic breast cancer.

The combination of breast cancer drugs Tykerb and Xeloda are effective at slowing the progression of metastatic breast cancer after the drug Herceptin fails -- but the drug duo is only effective at extending the lives of patients for a few months, according to the results of a recent international clinical trial.

The trial, led by Charles E. Geyer, M.D., of Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh and published in the December 28 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, focused on 324 women whose breast cancer had spread to other organs. The women had already been treated with Herceptin for a median of 42-44 weeks -- and then half received Xeloda chemotherapy and half received both Xeloda and Tykerb.

Women who received the drug combination had more than a 50 percent delay in disease progression. Their cancer spread after a median 8.4 months, compared to 4.4 months for women who received only Xeloda.

Targeted drugs Herceptin and Tykerb are major advances in the fight against breast cancer -- for the 20 percent of diagnosed women with the aggressive HER2 positive disease -- and they are also quite expensive. While some say they are worth every penny if they offer a cure, others question the cost if they only delay the disease progression for a few months. Such was the case in this study.

Perhaps the greatest potential for these agents is for use before breast cancer spreads, when they may improve the chance for a cure.

The latest Phase III study of Roche's cancer treatment Xeloda -- featuring 627 previously treated colorectal patients -- has reached its primary endpoint of progression-free survival.

Study results show that the chemotherapy combination XELOX (Xeloda plus oxaliplatin) was as effective as the combination FOLFOX-4 (infused 5-FU/leucovorin plus oxaliplatin) in delaying disease progression -- a result that will be used in worldwide submissions of the drug.

Xeloda, an oral chemotherapy agent that can be taken at home, is already used in previously untreated colorectal cancer patients. It has also been approved for treatment of early stage colon cancer and for breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body.

Metastasis to the brain is hard to treat because many chemotherapies do not pass the blood-brain barrier. The blood-brain barrier is a natural filter within the body. It only allows certain substances through from the blood to the brain tissues. This is a natural defense mechanism. It is designed to keep harmful substances out of the brain. Only a few chemotherapy drugs get across the blood-brain barrier.

One drug that can pass the blood-brain barrier is called Temodar. A clinical trial was done from researchers at MD Anderson Cancer Center to evaluate the combination of Xeloda and Temodar in the treatment of metastatic breast cancer to the brain. The trial included 48 patients who were either newly diagnosed brain metastasis patients, patients with multiple areas spread to the brain and those that had recurred to the brain following prior therapies.

The study showed that 18 percent of patients have regression of the cancer in the brain, half of the patients had continued anti-cancer responses at eight weeks and half of the patients did not have cancer progression in the brain after three months.

The researches concluded that the treatment combination of Temodar and Xeloda provided anticancer response in metastatic breast cancer to the brain.