Breast cancer research just had a major breakthrough, and it was completely unexpected. Doctors at the Institute of Cancer Research in London tested a pair of drugs targeting a specific weakness found in one-in-ten breast cancers on 257 women, and were stunned when they found that the cancer had disappeared or shrunken dramatically in many of the women. What’s even more incredible is that these results came 11 days after the trial had started. In 11 percent of the cases the cancer had completely disappeared, and in a further 17 percent they were smaller than 5mm. The drugs were lapantinib and trastuzumab, which both target HER2 – a protein that fuels the growth of some women’s cancers.