Quote:
Mathematical modeling suggests that even in women whose breast cancer does not overexpress the HER-2 gene, treatment with trastuzumab (Herceptin) in the adjuvant setting could wipe out cancer stem cells, researchers reported here. "We predict that a year of trastuzumab therapy would likely eradicate breast cancer stem cells in patients in which the tumor overexpressed HER-2," said Mary E. Sehl, MD, PhD, of UCLA, during a poster presentation at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Sehl added that if trastuzumab were prescribed for patients with tumors that expressed normal levels of HER-2, the treatment would still drive the breast cancer stem cells in that population to extinction -- but it might take three to four years of therapy.
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I've heard before that there is some thought that breast cancer stem cells are her2 pos.
This idea of Herceptin working on cancer stem cells might explain continued Herceptin benefit after progression...progression thought to be expressed by faster cycling non-stem cells. Another reason to wonder if measuring visible growth in short intervals might be misleading at times.