Herceptin (trastuzumab)
A few decades ago, people with cancer could only treat their condition with chemotherapy, an invasive process to kill the fast-growing cancer cells in one’s body. Nonetheless, everything changed in 1998, when the first monoclonal antibody for cancer was released into the market.
Herceptin, as this drug is known, is used to treat those with HER2-positive breast cancer and HER2-positive metastatic stomach cancer. Basically, these monoclonal antibodies target the cancer cells inside the patient’s body and limit the processes that cause them to grow and multiply uncontrollably. Isn’t it amazing?
