The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Kadcyla (ado-trastuzumab emtansine), a new drug to treat breast cancer patients, Reuters reports. Created by Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG, the drug is for patients in the late stages of metastatic breast cancer who have failed to respond to other therapies. Kadcyla is approved for patients whose cancer cells have increased levels of a protein known as HER2. The first armed antibody approved to treat a solid tumor, Kadcyla will cost $9,800 a month. The box label contains a warning for the potential of liver and heart damage, life-threatening birth defects and death, but the most common side effects are nausea, fatigue, muscle and joint pain, increased live enzymes, headache and constipation.

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