A new drug for HER-2 positive breast cancer

Seattle Genetics has won FDA approval for tucatinib, a twice-daily pill meant to treat HER-2 positive breast cancer. It’s sanctioned for use in patients with aggressive disease that has spread through the body — even brain — and has resisted several other medications.

The company released Phase 3 results on tucatinib this past October, demonstrating a 46% reduction in disease progression compared to the control arm. Nearly half of the 600 women in the trial had breast cancer that had spread to their brains; the drug, which will be marketed under the name Tukysa, cut their risk of disease progression in half.