Onkológia 1/2011

Capecitabine and its role in the treatment of advanced HER2 positive breast cancer

Metastatic breast cancer is the leading cause of death from cancer among women worldwide. Approximately 20 % women with breast cancer that overexpress HER2, considered to be strong predictor for disease progression and death, are at greater risk than women whose tumors do not overexpress HER2. It represents an important therapeutic target in this population. We currently have 2 registered targeted drugs in this setting (trastuzumab and lapatinib) and others are being investigated in clinical trials (pertuzumab, neratinib etc.). (5, 6) The treatment of intensively pretreated breast cancer is essentially palliative with the aim of providing antitumor activity and prolonging survival but without significant deterioration in quality of life. Despite the era of targeted therapies in several cancer types with certainty we cannot omit cytotoxic chemotherapy in these patients.

Keywords: HER2 positive breast cancer, chemotherapy, trastuzumab, capecitabine, time to progression, overall survival, toxicity.