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AstraZeneca's Enhertu Shows Promise for Broader Breast Cancer Use

Test tubes are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo in this illustration taken, May 21, 2021. (Reuters)
Test tubes are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo in this illustration taken, May 21, 2021. (Reuters)
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AstraZeneca's Enhertu Shows Promise for Broader Breast Cancer Use

Test tubes are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo in this illustration taken, May 21, 2021. (Reuters)
Test tubes are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo in this illustration taken, May 21, 2021. (Reuters)

AstraZeneca said its Enhertu cancer drug has been shown to significantly help women suffering from a type of breast cancer that leaves them with poor treatment options, opening the door to a much larger potential patient group.

AstraZeneca, which is working on the drug with Japan's Daiichi Sankyo, said on Monday that Enhertu prolonged survival and slowed the progression of metastatic breast cancer with low levels of a protein known as HER2.

The improvement was "clinically meaningful" when compared with standard chemotherapy, it said, adding that detailed trial results would be presented at an as-yet undisclosed medical conference.

While the study was limited to low-HER2 patients whose tumors had spread to other parts of the body, analysts have said a positive trial read-out could portend future use at an earlier stage of the disease with potentially hundreds of thousands of new eligible patients per year.

AstraZeneca has predicted a decline in sales of its widely used COVID-19 vaccine this year.

However, brisk revenue growth from new cancer drugs has prompted analysts to rank the Anglo-Swedish company as one of the world's fastest growing major pharma groups.

Enhertu belongs to a promising class of therapies called antibody drug conjugates (ADC), which are engineered antibodies that bind to tumors cells and then release cell-killing chemicals.

AstraZeneca secured rights to the Daiichi Sankyo compound three years ago in a deal worth up to $6.9 billion, challenging the world's biggest cancer drug maker, Roche.

Enhertu has since been shown to help women with breast cancer characterized by high levels of HER2, a cell receptor that leads to uncontrolled tissue growth, when compared to Roche's ADC drug Kadcyla. This led to initial market approvals in late 2019.

Astra's drug is also being tested against gastric, lung and colorectal cancers.

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Scientists Seek Miracle Pill to Stop Methane Cow Burps

A cow that's part of study on reducing methane emitted by cow burps stands in an exclosure at UC Davis in Davis, California on October 23, 2024. (AFP)
A cow that's part of study on reducing methane emitted by cow burps stands in an exclosure at UC Davis in Davis, California on October 23, 2024. (AFP)
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Scientists Seek Miracle Pill to Stop Methane Cow Burps

A cow that's part of study on reducing methane emitted by cow burps stands in an exclosure at UC Davis in Davis, California on October 23, 2024. (AFP)
A cow that's part of study on reducing methane emitted by cow burps stands in an exclosure at UC Davis in Davis, California on October 23, 2024. (AFP)

A scientist guides a long tube into the mouth and down to the stomach of Thing 1, a two-month-old calf that is part of a research project aiming to prevent cows from burping methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

Paulo de Meo Filho, a postdoctoral researcher at University of California, Davis, is part of an ambitious experiment aiming to develop a pill to transform cow gut bacteria so it emits less or no methane.

While the fossil fuel industry and some natural sources emit methane, cattle farming has become a major climate concern due to the sheer volume of the cows' emissions.

"Almost half of the increase in (global) temperature that we've had so far, it's been because of methane," said Ermias Kebreab, an animal science professor at UC Davis.

Methane, the second largest contributor to climate change after carbon dioxide, breaks down faster than CO2 but is more potent.

"Methane lives in the atmosphere for about 12 years" unlike carbon dioxide which persists for centuries, Kebreab said.

"If you start reducing methane now, we can actually see the effect on the temperature very quickly."

Filho uses the tube to extract liquid from Thing 1's rumen -- the first stomach compartment containing partially digested food.

Using the rumen liquid samples, the scientists are studying the microbes that convert hydrogen into methane, which is not digested by the cow but instead burped out.

A single cow will burp roughly 220 pounds (100 kilograms) of the gas annually.

- 'Social critters' -

Thing 1 and other calves receive a seaweed-supplemented diet to reduce methane production.

Scientists hope to achieve similar results by introducing genetically modified microbes that soak up hydrogen, starving methane-producing bacteria at the source.

However, the team proceeds cautiously.

"We can't just simply cut down methane production by removing" methane-making bacteria, as hydrogen could accumulate to the point of harming the animal, warned Matthias Hess, who runs the UC Davis lab.

"Microbes are kind of social critters. They really like to live together," he said.

"The way they interact and affect each other impacts the overall function of the ecosystem."

Hess's students test different formulas in bioreactors, vessels that reproduce microorganisms' living conditions in a stomach from movements to temperature.

- More productive cows -

The project is being carried out at UC Davis as well as UC Berkeley's Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI).

IGI scientists are trying to identify the right microbe -- the one they hope to genetically alter to supplant methane-producing microbes.

The modified microorganisms will then be tested at UC Davis in the lab and in the animals.

"Not only are we trying to reduce methane emissions, but you also increase the feed efficiency," said Kebreab.

"Hydrogen and methane, they are both energy, and so if you reduce that energy and redirect it to something else... we have a better productivity and lower emissions at the same time."

The ultimate goal is a single-dose treatment administered early in life, since most cattle graze freely and can't receive daily supplements.

The three research teams have been given $70 million and seven years to achieve a breakthrough.

Kebreab has long studied sustainable livestock practices and pushes back against calls to reduce meat consumption to save the planet.

While acknowledging this might work for healthy adults in developed nations, he pointed to countries like Indonesia, where the government is seeking to increase meat and dairy production because 20 percent of children under five suffer from stunted growth.

"We can't tell them to not eat meat," he said.