Take-home messages
There are legitimate arguments regarding whether curing MBC is within reach for certain patient subsets, but there is no argument about whether the outlook for patients with HER2+ MBC has improved dramatically in recent years; it has.
The approval of four unique, new agents for the treatment of women with HER2+ MBC in relapse provides further improvements in outcome for these patients and distinctly different opportunities for tailoring treatment to the special circumstances of each patient (e.g., whether brain metastases are present, desire for oral therapy, comorbidities, experience with prior chemotherapy, etc).
When considered along with the potential for incorporating these drugs in earlier settings in well-designed clinical trials, these new drugs offer great promise to a group of patients who faced a dismal outcome just 2 decades ago.
Dr. Lyss was a community-based medical oncologist and clinical researcher for more than 35 years before his recent retirement. His clinical and research interests were focused on breast and lung cancers, as well as expanding clinical trial access to medically underserved populations. He is based in St. Louis. He has no conflicts of interest.
