Dr. Tripathy on Neoadjuvant Treatment Strategies in HER2+ Breast Cancer

Debu Tripathy, MD, chair of Breast Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses neoadjuvant treatment strategies in HER2-positive breast cancer.

The use of neoadjuvant therapy for HER2-positive breast cancer is an area of increasing understanding, knowledge, and interest, Tripathy explains. In both the neoadjuvant and adjuvant settings, it is known that patients have a higher chance of achieving a pathologic complete response (PCR) with the addition of trastuzumab (Herceptin) to standard chemotherapy, Tripathy says. Patients who achieve a PCR typically have a better chance at disease-free survival.

With this knowledge, investigators have began to test new drugs. Most recently, lapatinib (Tykerb) and pertuzumab (Perjeta) demonstrated an increase in PCR rate over trastuzumab and chemotherapy. These promising results can provide an advantage to patients, as it may allow them to undergo less aggressive surgery, and may increase the number of patients who can undergo breast conservation surgery, Tripathy explains.

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