FDA OKs expanded use of Glaxo breast cancer drug

US health regulators on Friday broadened the approval of GlaxoSmithKline's breast cancer drug Tykerb, saying it can now be used in combination with the Novartis breast cancer drug Femara. The Food and Drug Administration said the combination was approved to treat hormone positive and HER2-positive advanced breast cancer in post-menopausal women for whom hormonal therapy is indicated. HER2 is a protein involved in normal cell growth that is found in some breast cancers. Certain medicines, such as Roche's Herceptin, have been found to be effective only in women who have an excess of the HER2-protein. In hormone positive breast cancer, the presence of certain hormones contributes to breast cancer growth. Tykerb, a pill, works by depriving tumor cells of signals needed to grow and blocks the function of the HER2 protein.