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"There was early tumor regression with a median decrease of –20.0% (range. 0% to 60.4%) after only 3 weeks of trastuzumab, and eight patients (23%) had a partial response. Consistent with the clinical regressions, apoptosis was significantly induced (median increase from 3.5% to 4.7%; P = .006) within week 1, a 35% increase above baseline. No significant change in epidermal growth factor receptor score was observed in week 1, without changes in total or p-HER-2 expression. Tumors with high baseline Ki67 were less likely to respond (P = .02). "
Partial Translation (correct me if anything here is wrong):
After three weeks of receiving herceptin before surgery, half of early BC patients had their tumors shrink by 20% or more, with the range for all patients being 0 to 60%, and 8 had a partial response (meaning that their tumors shrunk by more than 50%). As expected from the results in the laboratory, cell death significantly increased within one week to 35% above the baseline (the average increase was 3.5% to 4.7, and there was only a 0.6% chance that this happened by coincidence).
[Unclear: No significant change in epidermal growth factor receptor score was observed in week 1, without changes in total or p-HER-2 expression. (Not clear exactly, but the Medline bit said that herceptin in humans does not downregulate HER2)]
Tumors that were highly proliferative to begin with were less likely to shrink (and there is only a 2% chance that this connection is just a coincidence).
End translation.
Thanks for that Lani. It is really interesting that herceptin works best for less proliferative cancers, which is exactly the opposite of chemo.
A little more than a year ago, I had the choice between putting my name down for the HERA trial and perhaps ending up in the control group or subjecting myself to four rounds of taxotere on top of the six rounds of chemo I had had before surgery. I followed the advice of my oncologist, who was leaning towards taxotere, partly because he doubted that I would make HERA in time. With all of the excitement about the forthcoming HERA trial results, I have been wondering whether I did the right thing for my highly proliferative cancer. Perhaps I did.
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