The changing treatment of metastatic her2-positive breast cancer (Review)

Abstract

Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-overexpressing breast cancer has been historically associated with an aggressive disease course with common distant metastasis and poor prognosis. HER2-targeting therapies have significantly changed treatment and drastically improved outcomes for this group of patients. However, primary or acquired resistance to anti-HER2 regimens leads almost universally to disease progression, often with difficult to treat central nervous system (CNS) metastases. The current review summarized the existing therapeutic options for HER2-positive metastatic disease in the first, second and further line setting. Furthermore, novel agents currently under development were presented, which have demonstrated encouraging results in heavily pretreated patients or specific subgroups, such as HR-positive/HER2-positive tumors and CNS disease.