JIM RISWOLD
HERCEPTIN
2013 color digital print

33-1/2 x 33-1/2 inches, Edition of 10, $750.
24 x 24 inches, Edition of 10, $500.


Herceptin is a movie star.

Herceptin starred in Living Proof with Harry Connick Jr., a movie based on Dr.
Dennis Slamon’s development of the drug.

Living Proof is not to be confused with Living Proof: The Hank Williams Jr. Story.

Before Herceptin was a movie star, it was a literary star featured in the book Her-2:
The Making of Herceptin, a Revolutionary Treatment for Breast Cancer.

Herceptin was indeed a revolution—a revolution that took 12 years.

Slamon and his colleagues at UCLA identified the HER-2/neu oncogene, human
epidermal growth factor receptor no. 2. Thankfully, he called it HER-2 for short.

He found that 25% of breast cancer patients were HER-2 positive, which meant
that they had a protein that caused cancer cells to reproduce uncontrollably and,
subsequently, caused their tumors to grow much faster. There was no happy ending
for these patients.

Slamon targeted that gene. He discovered a BFD: when he added an antibody
to the specific protein he slowed cell growth and the resulting tumor shrank dramatically.
His original studies showed that Herceptin, then known as the tongue
twister Trastuzumab, improved overall survival in late-stage breast cancer from
20.3 to 25.1 months.

In September 1998, the FDA approved Herceptin to treat HER-2 positive woman
with metastatic breast cancer. It was the first targeted chemotherapeutic agent to
receive FDA approval.

Herceptin’s real star is Barbara Bradfield.

In 1992, she participated in Slamon’s phase one trials of Herceptin. In 1993, she showed no
trace of the disease.

Today, she lives happily ever after in Puyallup, Washington.

This piece is dedicated to my friend Hildur Solvadottir whose name is harder to pronounce
than Trastuzumab, the chemotherapy that helped her beat breast cancer. In
case you don’t speak oncologist, Trastuzumab is the generic name for Herceptin.