Study Finds More Isn't Better for Roche Breast Cancer Drug

For more than a decade, women with a dangerous form of breast cancer have relied on Roche Holding AG’s blockbuster drug Herceptin, taking the $76,700-a-year medicine for 12 months to fight off the disease. According to research released Wednesday, women taking Herceptin for six months were just as likely to be free of cancer four years later as those who used the drug for a year, the current standard of care recommended by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Roche. “Our field is maturing,” said Bruce Johnson, chief clinical research officer at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, or ASCO.