but she was very supportive of me in her own way. >> reporter: a drug called herceptin targets the her protein and can be very effective. but the way it is given with a chemotherapy agent called adriamycin increases the risk of heart failure. the study out today in which friedman volunteers showed if doctors use it with a different theme chemotherapy, carboplatin, the risk of heart failure drops by five fold while overall heart function improves. >> we can do away with one major problem the herceptin drug has when used with adriamycin which is increased heart toxicity. >> reporter: there is a drawback. women getting the new combination had slightly more cancer recurrences. the increase is enough for many doctors to say they will not immediately change the drugs they give to all patients. what does it mean for you in your practice? >> in our everyday practice it really means that we have another option without increasing the risk for some of these very serious long-term complications. >> all right. this is exciting. >> reporter: experts agree more options are needed for the 200,000 wome

new research shows that the very effective breast cancer drug called herceptin can be given to patients in a way that greatly reduces one of its most serious side effects. the story tonight from our chief science correspondent robert bazell. >> reporter: when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002, rebecca friedman got an additional scary piece of news. >> it was her-2 positive which i hadn't heard of before. >> reporter: there is a certain protein on the cells which can make them more aggressive. she was especially concerned because her daughter hannah was just a baby. >> she was too little to really understand what was going on. but she was very supportive of me in her own way. >> reporter: a drug called herceptin targets the protein and can be effective. the way it is given with a chemotherapy agent increase it is risk of heart failure. the study out today in which friedman volunteers showed if doctors use it with a different chemotherapy the risk of heart failure drops by five failure while overall heart function improves. >> we can do away with one major problem the drug has

the standard treatment has been herceptin.t battles one out of four cancers with a genetic mutation. this new study out just now looked at a different combination. it looked at it with another drug. the number of heart failures is more than 3,000 women over five years. the number of heart failures went down by a factor of five. this is very big news. >> is it just as effective? >> it is almost as effective. it reduced the cancers by not quite so much. the difference with and without was not statistically significant. there were a few more cancers in the group with the new combination. >> is this now going to be the protocol they will apply to women or to positive cancers? >> it would be the new care if it weren't for the few extra cancer cases i was talking about. a lot of doctors are going to look at this data and talk to their patients. certainly for women already at risk for heart problems and for others who have it in their family, this is the obvious solution. others will use it to avoid the side effect. >> while we are o