{"id":28186,"date":"2022-07-05T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-05T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cancer.gov\/news-events\/cancer-currents-blog\/2022\/enhertu-her2-low-breast-cancer"},"modified":"2024-11-03T15:13:36","modified_gmt":"2024-11-03T15:13:36","slug":"enhertu-improves-survival-for-metastatic-her2-low-breast-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/enhertu-improves-survival-for-metastatic-her2-low-breast-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"Enhertu Improves Survival for Metastatic \u201cHER2-Low\u201d Breast Cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Enhertu binds to the HER2 protein (light green) on tumor cells, then moves inside the cell, where the deruxtecan portion of the drug (yellow) is released and kills the cell.<\/p>\n

Credit: Int J Mol Sci. April 2021. DOI: 10.3390\/ijms22094774. CC BY 4.0. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

New clinical trial results could open the door to more effective treatments for about half of all people with metastatic breast cancer\u2014those whose tumors don\u2019t have high levels of the protein HER2\u2014who until now have had limited treatment options.<\/p>\n

In the trial, people with metastatic<\/a> breast cancer who were treated with the HER2<\/a>-targeted drug trastuzumab deruxtecan (Enhertu)<\/a> lived nearly twice as long without their cancer growing, and lived 6 months longer overall<\/a>, than those treated with standard chemotherapy. All patients in the study had tumors classified as \u201cHER2-low\u201d and had previously been treated for metastatic breast cancer with at least one other drug.<\/p>\n

Until now, only people with breast cancers whose tumor cells produce high levels of HER2, known as HER2-positive breast cancer, had been shown to benefit from drugs that target HER2. But only about 15%\u201320% of people with breast cancer have HER2-positive tumors. The rest have no detectable HER2 or low levels. <\/p>\n

The newly designated HER2-low form of metastatic breast cancer \u201ctraditionally [has been] quite difficult to treat,\u201d said breast cancer expert Jane Meisel, M.D., of Emory University\u2019s Winship Cancer Institute, who was not involved with the study.<\/p>\n