HER2-positive breast cancer patient being treated with newly approved drugs

HER2-positive breast cancer is an aggressive form of cancer, accounting for about 20% of all breast cancer cases. Now, doctors say two separate, newly FDA-approved treatments are available to patients with HER2-positive cancer that has spread.

Joyce Gruss. who loves playing games with her Jack Russel Terrier, is battling an aggressive form of breast cancer. It’s back for the second time and has spread to her liver. “What was happening was my liver was so swelled. It was like, you could feel it through the rib cage.”

Doctors diagnosed Gruss with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer, meaning she had a high level of a growth protein on her breast cancer cells.

“There have been a number of drugs that have come along that target this HER2 protein,” said David Riseberg, a medical oncologist at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore.

One drug, Tukysa, was approved in April 2020. Another drug, Enhertu, had been approved just three months earlier. Right now, Enhertu is keeping Joyce’s cancer from progressing.

“The more tools in our toolbox, the more things we have to offer our patients,” said doctor Riseberg.

When Gruss started treatment for the recurrence in 2018, doctor Riseberg was not sure she had much time, she said, “he was brutally honest. He said, ‘you probably have two or three years to live’. He told me the other day, ‘I’m so glad I was wrong’. So, I said, ‘I am too’. You know, you literally do live one day at a time.”

Gruss was the first person in her family to be diagnosed with breast cancer, but her 80-year-old mother was recently diagnosed with the same form of the disease. Gruss says she is glad to be able to support her mom through treatment.

To support women in the fight against breast cancer, WINK News is sponsoring the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk. The walk is on Saturday, Oct. 2 at 4:30 p.m. at North Collier Park. For more information or to donate, visit the Making Strides SWFL website here.