The trial set out to investigate how drugs changed breast cancers in the short window between a tumour being diagnosed and the operation to remove the tumour.

Combination drugs could help shrink or kill breast cancers

A combination of two drugs were used – lapatinib and trastuzumab (Herceptin) – both drugs target HER2 – a protein that fuels the growth of some women’s breast cancers. Herceptin works on the surface of cancerous cells while lapatinib is able to penetrate inside the cell to disable HER2.

The surprising research found that taking the combination drugs before surgery shrinks, and in some cases may even destroys, tumours in women with HER2 positive disease within 11 days. The research may lead to fewer women needing chemotherapy.

According to Breast Cancer Care nearly 58,000 people are diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK every year, and 1 in 8 women in the UK will develop breast cancer in their lifetime with 11,500 deaths.

With further research women may be able to avoid chemotherapy and its unwanted side-effects after their surgery, as well as morbidity, leading to a better quality of life.

Drugs could reduce need for chemotherapy

Trial co-leader Professor Judith Bliss, director of the Cancer Research UK-funded clinical trials and statistics unit at the Institute of Cancer Research, London, said: “Our results are a strong foundation on which to build further trials of combination anti-HER2 therapies prior to surgery – which could reduce the number of women who require subsequent chemotherapy, which is also very effective but can lead to long-term side effects.”

Clinical chief investigator and trial co-leader Professor Nigel Bundred, professor of surgical oncology at the University of Manchester and clinical consultant at University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust, said: “…We will be able to personalise treatment for these cancers on the basis of early response, allowing us to identify patients who in the future may avoid treatment morbidity or avoid chemotherapy”.

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Read what the BBC has to say about the trial 

Read more about the trial at Cancer Research