Patients with advanced breast cancer lived significantly longer without their disease getting worse when treated with Roche's pertuzumab and Herceptin along with chemotherapy, a late-stage study has shown.

The Swiss drugmaker said today it planned to seek approval with health authorities based on these results this year, in another boost to its oncology franchise.

The study showed that patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer taking this combined therapy of targeted medicines and docetaxel chemotherapy lived for longer without their disease getting worse compared with those who only received Herceptin and the chemotherapy, Roche said.

Roche, the world's largest maker of cancer drugs, said no new safety signals were observed in the trial in which Roche met its primary endpoint of progression free survival (PFS).

The group has flagged pertuzumab as one of its brightest near-term prospects.

Reuters