After the best drug stopped working, half still responded: a second-chance breast cancer therapy posts 50%

For women whose HER2-positive breast cancer kept growing even after Enhertu — currently the strongest drug of its kind — options run thin. A therapy called IKS014, developed by South Korea's Ligachem Biosciences with partner Iksuda Therapeutics, takes a different route to the same target. In interim Phase 1 results shared on 2 November, five of ten such patients saw their tumours shrink — a 50% response rate in people who had already endured a median of six earlier treatments, some of whom have now responded for more than 18 months. Across all 105 trial patients, serious treatment-related side effects occurred in 15.2%. It is an early, small readout, heading for fuller presentation in December — a beginning, but a real one.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: tech innovation