The FDA approves the groundbreaking drug trastuzumab (Herceptin) after research shows that adding the monoclonal antibody to chemotherapy dramatically increases survival for women with advanced breast cancer that over-produces a protein called HER2. In 2006, the drug is also approved as part of adjuvant therapy (after surgery) for women with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer, after two major trials show that it reduces the risk of recurrence by more than 50 percent, an unprecedented result.

About 25 percent of breast cancer patients have HER2-positive disease, and prior to the introduction of trastuzumab, there were no effective treatments for these cancers, which were considered some of the most aggressive, deadly forms of the disease. Recently, trastuzumab was also FDA-approved to treat patients with stomach cancers that have a similar over-production of the HER2 protein.

Researchers first establish that a receptor on cancer cells called the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) plays an important role in the growth and spread of non-small cell lung cancer. The findings present researchers with a new therapeutic target, and leads to the later development of targeted drugs such as gefitinib (Iressa) and erlotinib (Tarceva).