RobinP
12-09-2005, 01:51 PM
Well, just heard the conference by Dr. Perez and Dr. Lin on oncolink. Interesting, according to Dr. Lin, it appears that there is actually more brain mets seen in the adjuvant herceptin trails with increased DFS elsewhere. The brain is what she calls a sanctuary for mets with adjuvant herceptin.Further, Dr. Lin stated that brain mets was hard to treat due to drugs not not crossing the blood brain barrier and OS was decreased faster with brain mets. Curiously, Dr. Perez discussed the use of small molecule drug, Lapatinib and its ability target the erb family (her2) chain;thus, reducing the angiogenesis and her2 disease progression. Apparently, Lapatinib has demonstrated efficacy in crossing the blood brain barrier to reduce the erb2 chain of events in her2+bc. Accordingly, Lapatinib will be introduced early next year into early stage her2+ bc clinical trails to help reduce the later incidence of brain mets. Yep, running after that next beneficial drug bandwagon. Just where does it stop??? Don't get me wrong, I don't protest progress but it sucks having her2+ bc where definitive therapy is anything but definitive.