"...an [[Antibody]], a special immune [[Protein]], that targets products of the HER-2/neu OncoGene. It is often used as a treatment for women with metastatic BreastCancer that overexpresses the HER-2/neu OncoGene."

http://www.breastcancer.org/ren_report_2001_5.html#chemo

"The drug only appears to work for women whose BreastCancer [[Cell]]s carry extra copies of a protein called HER2 (also written HER2/neu)."

http://imaginis.com/breasthealth/herceptin.asp

After developing Herceptin, [[Genetech]] (?) could not get it approved by the USA FoodAndDrugAdministration. It was below the threshold; 1/3rd of all patients responded to it {?}. So they sorted their patient group into two "strata", one responders and the other non-responders. Then they determined a genetic difference between the two groups and (possibly) declared this was the causative discrimination between the groups.

This can be viewed as either [[AZT]]-style market manipulation, or one of the wonders of IndividualizedMedicine, depending on your point of view.

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Herceptin is the subject of a number of smarmy patient-oriented e-commerce sites...

http://www.herceptin.com/
http://www.herceptin.nl/ (under construction at this time)

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CategoryProtein