Browsing by Subject "pertuzumab"

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, about 25 % of all cancers in women. 15 - 20 % of them are HER2 positive. HER2 is a transmembrane protein receptor with tyrosine kinase activity. When the overexpressed receptor is activated it turns on a cascade which results to activation of genes coding for for the growth of the cancer cells. Drugs against HER2 protein have significantly improved the survival of patients with HER2 positive breast cancer. In this systematic review the epidemiology, diagnostics and the principles of treatment is reviewed with focus on the treatment of HER2 positive breast cancer and anti-HER2 medications. Endpoints of clinical trials and handling the data are also reviewed. The aim of this study is to collect data of lapatinib, pertuzumab and trastuzumab emtansine in randomized clinical trials studying progression free survival, overall survival and adverse effects of patients with metastatic HER2 positive breast cancer. As a result of the literature search 22 whole text articles were found. There were 14 of randomized clinical trials, 2 of previous systematic reviews and 6 of meta-analysis. The facts and results of the selected studies were collected in tables. The quality of the studies was evaluated with CONSORT and PRISMA guidance. Lapaninib is used mainly for treatment of patients with resistanse to trastuzumab. Lapatinib improves the progression free survival and overall survival but the effect has not been as goog as expected. Lapatinib is better than chemotherapy but worse than trastuzumab in the treatment of metastatic HER2 positive breast cancer. Combinaition therapy is better than none of these alone. Lapatinib is a small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Pertuzumab and trastuzumab emtansine are monoclonal antibodies targeting HER2 receptor. In trastuzumab emtansine there is also a cytotoxic drug which is delivered into the cancer cell. Pertuzumab is effective in the treatment of metastatic HER2 positive breast cancer and it improves the survival also after treatment with trastuzumab. Pertuzumab is now approved also as neoadjuvant. Promising results has been published with trastuzmab emtansine in the treatment of heavily medicated patients with progressive disease. Adverse effects were abundant but usually manageable and reversible. The quality of the studies was mainly good. Some limitations were noticed, especially in reporting methods. Cancer therapy with targeted medication improves the effect of the treatment and decrease systemic adverse effects. It seems that the use of lapatinib is going to be mostly complementary when more promising pertuzumab and trastuzumab emtansine turned up to be more effective in the treatment of metastatic HER2 positive breast cancer. In the future there should be more clinical experience with the use of lapatinib, pertuzumab and trastuzumab emtansine. That would guarantee a cancer patient the most effective treatment, hopefully at the early stage of cancer.