[Lani]

upon reading the article I found the following:

1) Influence of Estrogen Receptor Expression on OS
Of the 128 patients with both HER2-positive and estrogen recep- tor (ER) –positive (locally tested) breast cancer, no differences were observed in OS between the combination arm compared with the monotherapy arm (12 v 11.2 months, respectively; HR, 0.85; 95% CI, 0.57 to 1.26; P �� .404). Conversely, for 163 patients with HER2- positive and ER-negative breast cancer, a significant survival benefit was observed for those receiving combination therapy compared with those receiving lapatinib monotherapy (median 16.5 v 8.9 months, respectively; HR, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.47 to 0.98; P �� .012).


2) Patients with HER2-positive and ER-positive breast cancer did not derive an OS benefit from the com- bination compared with monotherapy. In contrast, patients with HER2-positive and ER-negative breast cancer had a significant OS benefit when administered combination therapy. A similar benefit was noted in subgroups of patients receiving lapatinib plus paclitaxel.22 De- spite the crosstalk between ER and HER2 pathways,23 these data contrib- ute to speculation that absence of ER expression results in HER2-positive breast cancer with enhanced dependence on HER signaling.

Am wondering how many of you who have benefited/not benefited from the
lapatinib+herceptin combo were ER+ as well as her2+, strongly or weakly?

It also turned out to be more effective for those with non-bone mets than for those
with bone mets. Did that seem to be the case for those of you who have tried this
regimen?

I think we should all thank Mauricio Scaltriti who did the original preclinical work under
Jose Baselga for discovering the supersynergism when combining these two agents No they aren't the
cure-all we are all waiting for, but the combination is certainly leading the way to discovering which
combination of targeted treatments will be most effective in which patients.

Every bit of progress helps!