Dr. Borgen on Successful Progress in HER2-Positive Breast Cancer

Patrick Borgen, MD, chair, Department of Surgery, director, Breast Center, Maimonides Medical Center, discusses the successful progress seen in the treatment landscape of HER2-positive breast cancer.

HER2-positive disease, according to Borgen, is one of the more interesting subsets of breast cancer, given its extraordinary progress. Years ago, when HER2 amplification was initially described, it was notoriously known to be one of the worst subtypes of breast cancer that a patient could be diagnosed with.

With the introduction of trastuzumab (Herceptin), the field saw a complete revolution in outcomes for patients with this disease. Today, that approach has only been strengthened further through the concept of dual therapy against the HER2 receptor, Borgen explains. Specifically, in ER-negative, HER2-positive breast cancer, chemotherapy plus double-targeting of HER2 yields complete pathologic response rates in the 60% to 70% range. These response rates have not been observed with treatments for any other subtypes of breast cancer.

Borgen says that this is proof of principle that, if an oncologist can target the correct actionable item, then he can see extraordinary results.