Video

Dr. Lin on the Treatment Landscape in HER2+ Metastatic Breast Cancer

Author(s):

Nancy U. Lin, MD, discusses the treatment landscape in HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. 

Nancy U. Lin, MD, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School; associate chief of the Division of Breast Oncology, Susan F. Smith Center for Women’s Cancers; director of the Metastatic Breast Cancer Program and senior physician at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the treatment landscape in HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. 

​Historically, patients with HER2-positive breast cancer received trastuzumab (Herceptin) plus pertuzumab (Perjeta) and chemotherapy in the first-line setting​, followed by ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1; Kadcyla) in the second-line setting, says Lin.

​P​rior to the phase 2 HER2CLIMB and DESTINY-Breast01 trials, third-line treatment was physician’s choice, ​explains Lin. Lapatinib (Tykerb)- or neratinib (Nerlynx)-containing regimens or trastuzumab-based combinations were often implemented in the third-line setting. 

However, results from HER2CLIMB ​revealed that tucatinib (Tukysa) plus capecitabine (Xeloda) and trastuzumab ​led to a 34% reduction in the risk of death compared with trastuzumab and capecitabine alone in patients with heavily pretreated unresectable locally advanced or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer. 

However, these results fail to confirm where tucatinib will be placed relative to fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (Enhertu), Lin concludes.

Related Videos
Andrew Ip, MD
Mansi R. Shah, MD
Elizabeth Buchbinder, MD
Benjamin Garmezy, MD, assistant director, Genitourinary Research, Sarah Cannon Research Institute
Alec Watson, MD
Sagar D. Sardesai, MBBS
Ashkan Emadi, MD, PhD
Matthew J. Baker, PhD
Manmeet Ahluwalia, MD, MBA, FASCO
John Mascarenhas, MD