The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new breast cancer chemotherapy drug called Ixempra for the treatment of advanced breast cancer in women who haven't responded to three other types of chemotherapy.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., which makes Ixempra, said was the drug is approved for use with the chemotherapy drug capecitabine (brand name Xeloda) for treatment of women with breast cancer that's spread to other parts of the body

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday reportedly approved two drugs for the treatment of advanced breast cancer in women who have stopped responding to other drug forms.

The GlaxoSmithKline PLC drug, Tykerb (lapatinib) in combination with Xeloda (capecitabine) is to be taken once daily in pill form by women who have received prior treatment with the intravenous drug Herceptin and older chemotherapy drugs called taxanes and anthracyclines

This is a good news for women in the advanced stage of breast cancer. A recent study has found that a combination of breast cancer drugs namely Tykerb and Xeloda, dramatically slows the spread of aggressive late-stage breast cancer.

According to researchers the doses are administered to patients in conjunction with chemothearpy, after Herceptin fails. Herceptin is the first developed human antibody approved for the treatment of HER2-positive metastatic (advanced stage) breast cancer