SAN FRANCISCO - A new therapy, developed here in the Bay Area, is said to prolong the lives of breast cancer patients by nearly 16 months. Doctors said it's unprecedented.

Michelle Avery was diagnosed with breast cancer in September 2013. Doctors discovered she had cancer through her spine, and lesions on her liver. Her doctors elected for a treatment found to be successful in women with incurable HER2-positive breast cancer, which accounts for about 20 percent of breast cancer cases.

“And then to learn for the rest of your life, you're going to have to every three weeks do these infusions and I thought ‘oh my God, who could do that?’ But it's OK,” Avery said.

Doctors chose to treat Avery with Herceptin and Perjeta in addition to chemotherapy. When this method was tested in clinical tri

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