title: Is the era of HER2 over? Pertuzumab in the neoadjuvant treatment of early HER2-positive breast cancer.
abstract: At the ASCO Breast Cancer Symposium in San Francisco last year, the keynote speaker, Dr George Sledge, chief of oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine and a preeminent breast cancer researcher, gave his 5 predictions for the state of breast cancer care in 10 years. One of his more startling predictions was that in 10 years, he believed that the era of HER2/neu would be over. He predicted that 3-year disease-free survival for patients with HER2/neu-positive disease would more than 92%, approximating outcomes in other good prognosis malignancies such as testicular cancer. In view of that expectation, he believed that the main research questions regarding HER2- positive disease would eventually involve decreasing toxicity and costs rather than the improving efficacy of HER2-targeted therapy. Essentially, HER2/neu-positive disease would cease to be a public health issue. In view of this remarkable but likely prescient statement, we note the recent publication of 2 trials (NeoSphere and TRPHAENA) that examined the efficacy and safety of the use of pertuzumab in combination with trastuzumab and chemotherapy in the neoadjuvant treatment of early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer.
authors: Department of Hematology/Oncology, Cleveland Clinic Florida, Weston, FL USA Email: samuelt@ccf.org.
authors: Thomas A
authors: TA
authors: Samuel
authors: Elizabeth
authors: E
authors: Stone