title: Trastuzumab: updates and future issues.
abstract: Trastuzumab has had an enormous impact on the clinical management of breast cancer: the survival of Her-2-positive metastatic breast cancer patients has improved significantly and tumor Her-2 status has been built into the decision-making tree for primary breast cancer patients. Several pioneering studies have shown that trastuzumab-combined chemotherapy elicits high levels of pathological complete response in the neoadjuvant setting. Currently, therefore, a more precise understanding of the mechanisms of therapeutic response is needed so that trastuzumab-based therapies can be optimized more individually. It might also be important to investigate, with greater depth, the interaction between the Her-axis and the hormone-axis. This short review describes and discusses these topics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Trial and Research, Tokyo Metropolitan Cancer and Infectious Disease Center, Komagome Hospital, Honkomagome 3-18-22, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8677, Japan. maktoi77@wa2.so-net.ne.jp
authors.forename: Masakazu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Toi
authors.forename: Kazumi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Horiguchi
authors.forename: Hiroko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bando
authors.forename: Shigehira
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Saji
authors.forename: Louis W C
authors.initials: LW
authors.lastname: Chow
mesh_terms: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D061067:Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000401:mortality; D004358:Drug Therapy / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D015996:Survival Rate; D000068878:Trastuzumab; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D061067:Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D000068878:Trastuzumab