Tumors shrank 'sharply' in 11 days

Breast cancer Image copyright SPL
A pair of drug can dramatically shrink and eliminate some of the breast cancer in only 11 days, British doctors have shown.
They said that the "surprise" the findings presented at the European Conference on Breast Cancer, may mean some women no longer need chemotherapy.
Formulations tested on 257 women target a specific weakness found in one out of ten cases of breast cancer.
According to experts, the results were "stepping stone", having regard to the treatment of cancer.
Doctors conducting the trial did not expect, or even intended to achieve such amazing results.
They explore how drugs change the cancer in the short window between the tumor diagnosis and surgery to remove it.
But by that time, surgeons have come to work, there was no sign of cancer in some patients.
Professor Judith Bliss, from the Institute of Cancer Research in London, said that the strike was "dramatic."
She told website BBC News: "We were particularly surprised by these results, as it was a short-term study.
"It became obvious, some of them had a complete response. This is absolutely intriguing, it's so fast."
Chest cancerImage copyrightSPL
captionMore images than 50,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year in the UK
Preparations were lapatinib and trastuzumab, which is more commonly known as Herceptin.
They both target HER2 - a protein that nourishes the growth of breast cancer in some women.
Herceptin works on the surface of cancer cells while lapatinib able to penetrate into the cell to disable HER2.
The study, which also occurred in hospitals in Manchester NHA gave treating women with tumors of 1 to 3 cm.
Less than two weeks of treatment, the cancer disappeared completely in 11% of cases, and even 17% were less than 5 mm.
Current therapy for breast HER2 positive cancer is surgery, followed by chemotherapy and Herceptin.
But Professor Bliss considers that the results may eventually mean some women do not need chemotherapy.
However, this will require more research, particularly in the HER2-positive cancer have a higher risk returns.
"We must be very clear that we do not take a step back and increasing the risk of relapse," said Professor Bliss.
Baroness Delyth Morgan, chief executive of breast cancer now, said: "We hope that this process is particularly impressive combination will serve as a stepping stone on the way to the era of more personalized treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer.
"Such a rapid response to treatment may soon give doctors an unparalleled ability to identify women responding so well that they will not need to be grueling chemotherapy."
Breast cancer is now considered as an at least ten separate diseases, each with a different reason, the life span and requiring different treatment.
Appropriate specific errors in tumors to targeted cancer drugs is considered to be the future of medicine.
Breast cancer and, in particular HER2 positive tumors, are at the forefront of this revolution in the treatment.
Professor Arnie Purushotham, from Cancer Research UK, which funded the research, said: "These results are very promising, if they get up in the long term, and can be a starting step to find a new way to treat HER2-positive breast cancer."