#8 First Approved Targeted Therapy for HER2 Low Breast Cancer
Oncology Advancements: Top 10 of 2022
First approved therapy targeted to patients with the HER2-low breast cancer subtype, a newly defined subset of HER2-negative breast cancer in which there are some HER2 proteins on the cell surface, but not enough to be classified as HER2-positive.
Why is this significant?
Enhertu was also approved in 2022 for adults with unresectable or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer who had received a prior anti-HER2-based regimen; as well as for adults with unresectable or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer whose tumors have an activating HER2 mutation who received prior systemic therapy.
Why Could this Impact Care?
Approximately 80-85% of new cancer cases were previously considered to be HER2-negative subtype[1], which means the tumors do not overexpress or make too many copies of the HER2 protein. Of that proportion of breast cancer diagnoses, about 60% of patients previously classified as having HER2-negative subtype can now be considered as HER2-low[1]. Prior to this approval, HER2-low patients received endocrine therapy or chemotherapy. Now they will be considered for personalized targeted therapy.
