Dr. Freedman on Preventing Brain Metastases in HER2+ Breast Cancer

Rachel A. Freedman, MD, MPH, associate clinical director, Breast Oncology Center, Susan F. Smith Center for Women's Cancers, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, senior physician, assistant professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, discusses preventing brain metastases in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer.

There are not many studies that have addressed how to prevent brain metastases, explains Freedman. An important step forward would be the ability to predict which patients will experience brain metastases and target those patients in a preventative clinical trial.

Many combinations that are used, such as neratinib and capecitabine, need to be investigated in further studies to determine if it is a potentially active systemic therapy that can prevent brain metastases, states Freedman.