Submitted by Dr.Kattlove’s Cancer Blog

Yesterday, I was visiting a friend who had just had surgery for breast cancer. She showed me her pathology report and I was impressed by how thoroughly her cancer was examined and how carefully they measured her cancer’s HER2 status (which was negative).

HER2 is a molecule present in about one-fourth of breast cancers. It is important for several reasons. Women whose cancers have this molecule are a little more likely to die of their cancer. They also will have a better outcome with adjuvant chemotherapy if drugs called anthracyclines (like Adriamycin) are included in the treatment. Finally, these women will also be helped by the drug, Herceptin, which specifically targets the HER2 molecule.

The downside of all this treatment however, is a small but definite risk of heart failure. Anthracyclines damage heart muscle, which can lead to heart failure.

But what if a woman’s cancer doesn’t contain this molecule (like my friend)? This week’s Journal of the National Cancer Institute contains an article summarizing many of the studies done on chemotherapy in women whose cancers were analyzed for HER2. The results are clear. Women whose cancers contain HER2 have better survivals if they receive anthracyclines. But, women whose cancers do not contain this molecule aren’t helped by them.

So if you are like three-fourth of all women with breast cancer (including my friend) and your cancer doesn’t have HER2, you can avoid heart-damaging anthracyclines. But you need to have your cancer carefully analyzed for HER2. This is not a simple test to perform. Make sure your hospital’s laboratory is up to speed. The most frequent error is to say that HER2 is present when in fact, it is not. So make sure your cancer is tested at a laboratory accredited by the America College of Pathologists and save your heart!

Visit 1800blogger to see all of our industry leading blogs.

Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]