In a clinical trial from the drugmaker, 62 patients with cholangiocarcinoma got Ziihera. In order to be included in the trial, patients could not have previously taken a HER2 drug for their cancer.
Cigna’s denials, however, said Middleton could only get Ziihera if he had already taken a HER2 drug.
“The problem is that there is no evidence to use Ziihera AFTER prior HER2 therapy,” Palmeri wrote in a text message.
In the trial, over half (52%) of the participants responded to the drug. Among those who did, the effects lasted for a median of 15 months.
“More than 50% is amazing for second-line therapy,” said Dr. Nipun Merchant, chief of the division of surgical oncology at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Health System. “We don’t see that very often.”
Dr. Douglas Rubinson, a senior physician specializing in gastrointestinal cancers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, said that Ziihera “might be the first big game-changer targeting HER2” in cancers of the gastrointestinal tract.
Still, he was careful not to promise that a liver transplant would cure Middleton.
