Dr. Chagpar on Sequencing Therapies for HER2-Positive Breast Cancer

Anees B. Chagpar, MD, MA, MPH, MBA, FRCS(C), FACS, associate professor of surgery (oncology), director, The Breast Center at Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven, assistant director, Global Oncology, Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses sequencing therapies for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer.

Treatment options for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer has significantly expanded in recent years, Chagpar explains. Though she was told that HER2-positive disease would reach high curative rates, similar to childhood leukemia, Chagpar says she was not convinced. However, she became more optimistic after seeing that combinations of targeted therapies demonstrated significant pathological complete response rates in a number of clinical trials.

Over the next decade, Chagpar predicts that HER2-positive disease will become a chronic disease that can be managed with a selection of targeted therapies.