New Strategies in HER2-Overexpressing Breast Cancer: Many Combinations of Targeted Drugs Available — Clin Cancer Res

New Strategies in HER2-Overexpressing Breast Cancer: Many Combinations of Targeted Drugs Available
Vandana Abramson1,2 and Carlos L. Arteaga1,2,3

+ Author Affiliations

Authors' Affiliations:1Department of Medicine, 2Breast Cancer Research Program, and 3Department of Cancer Biology, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee

Corresponding Author:
Carlos L. Arteaga, Div. Hematology/Oncology, VUMC, 2220 Pierce Avenue, 777 PRB, Nashville, TN 37232–6307. Phone: 615-936-3524; Fax: 615-936-1790; E-mail: carlos.arteaga@vanderbilt.edu


Abstract
The anti-HER2 drugs trastuzumab and lapatinib are increasingly changing the natural history of early and metastatic HER2-overexpressing breast cancer. Many other agents targeted against the HER2 signaling network are in clinical development, and these are or will soon be combined with the currently approved anti-HER2 therapies. We review herein recent data in support of the early use of combinations of agents targeted to the HER2 network as the most rational approach against this subtype of breast cancer. We propose that the optimal combination or combinations of anti-HER2 agents delivered early in the natural history of HER2+ breast cancer should close to eliminate acquired drug resistance, shorten the duration of therapy, and potentially dispense with the need of concurrent chemotherapy. Clin Cancer Res; 17(5); 952–8. ©2011 AACR.

Received October 7, 2010.
Revision received January 4, 2011.
Accepted January 4, 2011.
©2011 American Association for Cancer Research.
New Strategies in HER2-Overexpressing Breast Cancer: Many Combinations of Targeted Drugs Available — Clin Cancer Res