When Standard Therapy Fails in Breast Cancer: Current and Future Options for HER2-Positive Disease.

ABSTRACT: The area of HER2-positive breast cancer is a rapidly changing field. The use of the humanized monoclonal antibody, trastuzumab, significantly improved the prognosis for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer, however, increasing knowledge regarding mechanisms of resistance to trastuzumab have come to light, prompting research into additional methods to target the HER2 protein. The purpose of this article is to discuss evidence for why continued blockade of the HER2 pathway continues to be important despite progression on trastuzumab, as well as to review additional HER2-targeted therapies and progression in the central nervous system. With the availability of new drugs comes the need to determine the appropriate therapeutic combinations and optimal order in which to deliver these therap

SUBMITTER: Olson E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3920550 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature