Press Release

Clinical Breast Cancer Editorial Addresses Past and Future Successes of Therapy for HER2-Positive Disease

JANUARY 31, 2010

 In the February 2010 issue of Clinical Breast Cancer, Dr. George Sledge, Editor-in-Chief and ASCO President-Elect, focuses on the recent advances in HER2⁺ breast cancer therapy and the coming treatment options for patients in the near future.

“[Look at] how far we’ve come: from the identification of HER2⁺ breast cancer as a distinct biologic subset with an aggressive natural history, to a successful target in the metastatic setting, to the adjuvant success seen in that annus mirabilis of 2005, to a continuing target as we learn more about resistance and the means by which it might be defeated once and for all,” says Sledge.

Sledge observes that there are currently two approved agents specific to the treatment of patients with HER2⁺ disease: the monoclonal antibody trastuzumab and the small-molecule receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor lapatinib. He says other agents are on the way and under investigation and include agents inhibiting receptor dimerization, agents using HER2-targeted antibodies as delivery vehicles for cellular poisons, other small-molecule inhibitors of the HER family, inhibitors of downstream pathway components (PI3K and mTOR), inhibitors affecting degradation of the HER2 molecule, and inhibitors of receptors that have significant interactions with HER2 (eg, VEGFR and IGF-1R).

Clinical Breast Cancer is a bimonthly peer-reviewed journal that publishes original articles describing various aspects of clinical and translational research of breast cancer. Clinical Breast Cancer is devoted to articles on detection, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of breast cancer. The main emphasis is on recent scientific developments in all areas related to breast cancer. Specific areas of interest include clinical research and mechanistic approaches; drug sensitivity and resistance; gene and antisense therapy; pathology, markers, and prognostic indicators; chemoprevention strategies; multimodality therapy; and integration of various approaches.