Breast cancer information and resources
PARP inhibitors are unique molecules targeting only the PARP enzyme in BRCA 1/2 mutated cells, they are generally well tolerated as compared to chemotherapy. In this year at San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, the EMBRACA trial results were presented in abstract form.
The talazoparib arm patients reported better quality of life score as well as there was a significant delay in the time to deterioration
CREAT-X, Capcetabine for Residual Cancer as Adjuvant Therapy trial is the first of it’s kind to look into further adjuvant chemotherapy in patients who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
Capecitabine adjuvant therapy is beneficial in Her2-negative Breast cancer with residual disease following Neoadjuvant therapy.
HER2, or human epidermal growth factor 2, is a special protein (receptor) on the surface breast cancer cells, and it controls the growth of the cancer cells. The HER2 protein is present as a result of overexpression or amplification of the oncogene ERBB2. A tumor is considered HER2 positive by either the presence of HER2 protein presence and/or the overexpression of HER2 gene (the ERBB2). HER2 positive tumors are considered aggressive and have a tendency to recur, however, there are newer medications targeting HER2-positive cancer and led to significant improvement in outcome. 15% to 20% of all invasive breast cancer is reported to be HER2 positive. In this post, I will discuss the treatment of metastatic HER2 positive disease only, the nonmetastatic disease will be presented at a later date.
her2 testing must be done on biopsy material of metastatic site in all patients.
Neratinib is now approved for use in HER2 positive patients who completed their Trastuzumab-based therapy. This came following the publication of a phase 3 trial with the result indicating the benefit of Neratinib as compared to placebo. In the following blog post I will discuss the result of the ExteNET trial.
Continue reading “Extended Therapy with Neratinib for HER2 Positive Breast Cancer”
