Six months of breast cancer treatment ‘could be as effective as 12 in some women’

Six months of targeted drug therapy could potentially be as effective as treatment lasting 12 months for women with a type of early stage breast cancer.

This is according to unpublished clinical trial results.

Roughly nine in ten women taking trastuzumab - sold under the brand name Herceptin - for six months were found to be cancer-free four years after treatment, according to the trial. This figure was the same in those taking the standard 12-month course.

According to Cancer Research UK, the shorter treatment also came with less severe side effects.

Professor Helena Earl, lead researcher from the University of Cambridge, UK, said the findings were exciting.

She commented: “We are confident that this will mark the first step towards a reduction of Herceptin treatment to six months in many women with HER2-positive breast cancer.”