GSK, Abbott drug combo kills triple-negative breast cancer in mice

Combining two separate drugs made by GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK) and Abbott ($ABT) appeared to defeat a particularly lethal version of breast cancer cells in lab and mouse studies. The GSK drug--lapatinib (Tykerb), a kinase inhibitor--is approved to treat human epithelial growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) positive breast cancers and used in at least one other treatment combination. Abbott's veliparib is a PARP inhibitor in clinical trials for a number of cancers including breast cancer. What's novel here is scientists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham are exploring the combined drugs as a treatment for triple-negative breast cancer. More from FierceBiotechResearch