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HER2 and hormone receptor-positive breast cancer—blocking the right target

Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology volume 8, pages 307–311 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

HER2-positive tumors have a worse prognosis than HER2-negative cancers. Although the standard treatment for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer is chemotherapy and trastuzumab, the combination of aromatase inhibitors with anti-HER2 therapies has become an available strategy in patients with HER2-positive and hormone receptor-positive tumors. However, although this new treatment option is more effective than hormone therapy alone, it has not been compared with the standard chemotherapy and trastuzumab-based regimens. In fact, the activity observed in randomized clinical trials with chemotherapy and anti-HER2 therapies seems to be higher than that observed with aromatase inhibitors and trastuzumab-based or lapatinib-based therapies. In this article, we highlight the importance of considering chemotherapy and anti-HER2 therapy as the standard of care in HER2-positive and hormone receptor-positive tumors.

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Figure 1: Overall response rates in HER2-positive and hormone receptor-positive metastatic breast cancer.
Figure 2: Receptor cross-talk and response to therapy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Oncology Department, Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, Breast Cancer Unit, Paseo Vall d'Hebron 119–129, Barcelona, 08035, Spain

    Javier Cortés, Cristina Saura, Meritxell Bellet, Eva Muñoz-Couselo, Jose Pérez & María Vidal

  2. Fundación Jiménez-Díaz University Hospital, Avenida de los Reyes Católicos 2, Madrid, 28040, Spain

    Natalia Ramírez-Merino

  3. La Princesa University Hospital, Calle de Diego de León 62, Madrid, 28005, Spain

    Virginia Calvo

Authors
  1. Javier Cortés
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  2. Cristina Saura
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  7. Jose Pérez
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Contributions

J. Cortés and C. Saura researched data to include in the article. J. Cortés, C. Saura, N. Ramírez-Merino, V. Calvo and M. Vidal wrote the manuscript. All the authors contributed to discussion of content for the article and reviewed and edited the manuscript before submission.

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Correspondence to Javier Cortés.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Cortés, J., Saura, C., Bellet, M. et al. HER2 and hormone receptor-positive breast cancer—blocking the right target. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 8, 307–311 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2010.185

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