Abstract

TRASTUZUMAB USE IN BREAST CANCER TREATMENT: REVIEW

Danila Buoro Scatolin, Armindo Antônio Alves, Ana Laura Remédio Zeni Beretta*

ABSTRACT

Breast cancer is the most common among women, and in Brazil, accounting for about 25% of new cases each year. According to the National Cancer Institute, about two-thirds of breast cancers have expression of estrogen receptors (ER) and are called estrogen-receptor positive or just (positive ER). The trastuzumab monoclonal antibody against the extracellular site of the human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2 (HER2) has been growing as a treatment for breast cancer, promoting improvement in the results and establishing itself as a therapeutic option impact for patients with this type cancer. Overexpression of this receptor gives the cancer cell affected aggressive behavior characteristic with increased tumor growth and proliferation, increased invasiveness and metastatic, and stimulation of tumor angiogenesis. The great advances represented by the tumor molecular biology studies led to the development of drugs, monoclonal antibodies capable of specifically influence on the biological behavior of cancer cells. Trastuzumab monoclonal antibody is able to inhibit the proliferation of human tumor cells with increased expression of HER2 and is recommended as a monotherapy or in combination with chemotherapy in women with metastatic breast cancer with increased HER2 expression. Clinical studies have shown increased survival rates and improved quality of life for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer who have made use of trastuzumab. This was an integrative review, developed in publications indexed in the databases LILACS, SCIELO and PubMed. This article reviews data on clinical importance and efficacy of trastuzumab in the treatment of early and advanced breast cancer, and improvement in overall survival. Studies have shown that increasing the chance of getting response to treatment for advanced breast cancer when combining trastuzumab to taxane treatment with reducing disease progression.

Keywords: Breast cancer, monoclonal antibody, trastuzumab.