HER2 Therapies May Benefit Patients With Her2 neg BC

HER2 Therapies May Benefit Patients With Breast Cancers That Test Negative For HER2.

Medscape (2/27, Chustecka) reports, "Therapies targeted at HER2, such as trastuzumab (Herceptin), have revolutionized the treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer in recent years, but this accounts for only 20% of all breast cancers." But, research published online in Cancer Research "suggests that these drugs may play a role in other breast cancers, because HER2 has been found in cancer stem cells (CSCs), the clump of 'mother' cells that drives the disease." Medscape adds, "Even if a breast tumor tissue sample tests negative for HER2, indicating that a patient is not a candidate for HER2-targeted therapies, the drugs could be useful because they would target the HER2 found in the little clump of CSCs."

        The Daily Telegraph (UK) (2/27, Adams) reports, "When the researchers gave Herceptin to 'HER2 negative' mice, whose cancers had only just spread to the bone, they found the drug 'almost completely blocked the tumours from growing.' When given later they said it had 'little effect.'"