ONCOLOGY
ARGETED THERAPIES
FOR BREAST CANCER
ER, PR, HER2: Keeping up
with the Alphabet Soup
The “C” word is daunting enough…now you have to make sense of
ER-this, PR-that, HER2 positive or negative—if your head is swimming,
you’re not alone! Let’s take a breath and cover some basics.
WHAT ARE TARGETED THERAPIES?
In a nutshell, targeted therapies are
comparatively more specific than
chemotherapy in treating cancer.
They “target” certain molecules that
enable cancer to grow or spread.
Chemotherapy, long a cornerstone of
cancer treatment, is a relatively more
aggressive approach—the aim is to
kill cancer cells, but the tradeoff is
that healthy cells are also damaged
in the course of treatment.
As research offers a more and more
sophisticated knowledge of the
mechanics of cell health, anticancer
drug development is pushing to keep
pace. Targeted therapies are a key focus
of “precision medicine,” a branch
of medicine that uses information
about an individual’s genes and proteins
to prevent, diagnose, and treat
disease.
Many targeted cancer therapies have
been approved by the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) to treat specific
types of cancer, and many more
continue to be studied in clinical trials
(research studies with people), and
still more are in preclinical testing
(research studies with animals).
HORMONE THERAPY
Some tumors require certain hormones
to grow. Hormone therapies
are used to block the production or
effect of these hormones thereby inhibiting
the tumor’s ability to spread.
Breast cancer cells taken via biopsy or
during surgery will be tested to determine
if they are positive for estrogen
receptors (ER-positive) or progesterone
receptors (PR-positive). If one
or both of these protein receptors
are present, hormones can attach to
them and fuel cancer growth. A tumor
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