Cancer, treatment trastuzumab

Note that application in the particular indications is usually restricted either to patients expressing the target (e.g. trastuzumab, cetuximab, lapatinib, imatinib) and/or after failure of prior therapies (e.g. cetuximab, erlotinib, lapatinib, sutinib, dasatinib). Furthermore, for cancer treatment most tyrosine kinase inhibitors are applied in combination with conventional chemotherapeutic drugs, such as fluorouracil, taxanes, platin-based regimens, anthracylines and irinotecan or radiotherapy. 

In addition to these breast cancer trials, trastuzumab is under evaluation for the treatment of other cancers in which HER2 overexpression can occur, including ovarian cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, colorectal cancer, and prostate cancer. 

Metastasized human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-expressing breast cancer treatment was the first indication for trastuzumab, a HER2-specific humanized monoclonal antibody. HER2 is a receptor tyrosine kinase of the EGER family that is overexpressed... 

Yeon CH, Pegram MD. Anti-erbB-2 antibody trastuzumab in the treatment of HER2-amplified breast cancer. Invest New Drugs 2005 23 391-409. 

Umemura, S., Sekido, Y., Itoh, H., and Osamura, RY. 2002. Pathological evaluation of HER2 overexpression for the treatment of metastatic breast cancers by humanized anti-HER2 monoclonal antibody (trastuzumab). Acta Histochemica et Cytochemica, Kyoto 35(2), 77-81. 

Goldenberg, M.M., "Trastuzumab, a Recombinant DNA Derived Monoclonal Antibody, a Novel Agent for the Treatment of Metastatic Breast Cancer," Clin. Ther., 21, 309-318 (1999). 

Trastuzumab is licensed for the treatment of early breast cancer that overexpresses human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2). It may be administered as monotherapy or in combination with, for example, paclitaxel, docetaxel (taxanes) or anastrozole (aromatase inhibitors). Since trastuzumab can cause cardiotoxicity, concomitant use with anthracyclines such as... 

Pegram MD, Konecny GE, O Callaghan C, Beryt M, Pietras R, Slamon DJ. Rational combinations of trastuzumab with chemotherapeutic drugs used in the treatment of breast cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst 2004 96 739-49. 

In Section 3.2.2 we presented data from a clinical trial comparing trastuzumab to observation only after adjuvant chemotherapy in HER2-positive breast cancer. The incidence rates in the test treatment and control groups were respectively 7.0 per cent and 4.7 per cent. 

Indications For treatment of patients with metastatic breast cancer whose tumors overexpress the HER2 protein and who have received one or more chemotherapy regimens for their metastatic disease. Trastuzumab in combination with pacli-taxel is also indicated for treatment of patients with metastatic breast cancer whose tumors overexpress HER2 protein and who have not received chemotherapy for their metastatic disease... 

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