Neoadjuvant therapy of early stage human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 positive breast cancer: latest evidence and clinical implications.

ABSTRACT: Neoadjuvant therapy in human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive breast cancer is exactly the paradigm of targeted therapy and a suitable setting to develop and test rapidly novel therapies in early stages. Moreover, neoadjuvant approaches provide a significant source of tumour tissue to identify molecular heterogeneity and potential predictive biomarkers of response. The addition of trastuzumab to primary chemotherapy revolutionized the treatment of this tumour subtype, increasing pathological complete response rate (pCR) that, even with its limitations, has also been shown to be an early marker of survival in HER2-positive disease. HER2-positive breast cancer is a biological heterogeneous disease with different characteristics and clinical outcomes. Multiple promising anti

SUBMITTER: Pernas Simon S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4206611 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature