New Cancer Drug Approved, Kadcyla Extended Median Survial of Women with Breast Cancer by Half a Year

For those suffering from Breast Cancer, a new drug recently approved could provide some much needed relief.

The Food and Drug Administration approved the breast cancer drug on Friday, which combines a widely used breast cancer medicine, Herceptin, with a powerful toxin to more effectively kill cancer cells while potentially reducing side effects.

The drug, which will be called Kadcyla but was known as T-DM1 during its development, extended the median survival of women with advanced breast cancer by nearly half a year in a clinical trial according to The New York Times.

However, the new medicine is a bit pricy. Genentech, which developed the drug, said it would cost about $9,800 a month, or $94,000 for a typical course of treatment. That is about twice the price of Herceptin itself, also made by the same company. Still, it is similar to the price of various other cancer drugs, according to reports.

It is approved for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer, about 20 percent of cases.

Herceptin, also known as trastuzumab, binds to a protein on the surface of breast cancer cells called HER2 according to reports., and has had global sales of 5.9 billion Swiss francs ($6.3 billion at current exchange rates) in 2012. It was the world's best-selling drug used only for cancer in 2012.

Genentech tried to win approval for T-DM1 in 2010 as a treatment for breast cancer patients who had run out of options, based on a small trial without a control group. But the F.D.A. turned down the application, angering some patients and patient advocates.