[Lani]

In just a few years, her2+ breast cancer has gone from one of the worst (competing only with triple negative) to the one with THE HIGHEST pCR
(pathological complete response) EVER with neoadjuvant treatment

and that is only with chemo combined with herceptin and perjeta. It has been widely speculated that adding a 3rd targetted therapy should be the charm (and may even allow the chemo to be dispensed with)!




J Oncol. 2013;2013:732047. Epub 2013 Aug 20.
Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy and Targeted Therapy in Breast Cancer: Past, Present, and Future.
Gampenrieder SP, Rinnerthaler G, Greil R.
Source
3rd Medical Department with Hematology, Medical Oncology, Hemostaseology, Rheumatology and Infectious Diseases, Oncologic Center, Laboratory of Immunological and Molecular Cancer Research, Paracelsus Medical University, Müllner Hauptstraße 48, 5020 Salzburg, Austria.
Abstract
Traditionally, neoadjuvant treatment for breast cancer was preserved for locally advanced and inflammatory disease, converting an inoperable to a surgical resectable cancer. In recent years, neoadjuvant therapy has become an accepted treatment option also for lower tumor stages in order to increase the rate of breast conserving therapy and to reduce the extent of surgery. Furthermore, treatment response can be monitored, and therefore, patient compliance may be increased. Neoadjuvant trials, additionally, offer the opportunity to evaluate new treatment options in a faster way and with fewer patients than large adjuvant trials. Compared to the metastatic setting, the issue of acquired resistance and pretreatments, which may distort treatment efficacy, can be avoided. New trial designs like window-of-opportunity trials or postneoadjuvant trials provide the chance to identify tumor sensitivity or to overcome tumor resistance in early tumor stages. In particular, in HER2-positive breast cancer, the neoadjuvant approach yielded great successes. The dual HER2 blockade with trastuzumab and pertuzumab recently showed the highest pCR rates ever reported. Many new drugs are in clinical testing with the aim to further increase pCR rates. Whether this endpoint really represents a surrogate for long-term outcome is not answered yet and will be discussed in this review.
PMID: 24027583 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] Free full text