Durable complete response following chemotherapy and trastuzumab for metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer

Long‑responders to anti‑HER2 therapies: A�case�report and review of the literature

“…Some institutional guidelines suggest at least 5 years of maintenance treatment with trastuzumab, although the effectiveness of this kind of approach has not been proven (24).…”

Duration of Trastuzumab in Patients with HER2-Positive Metastatic Breast Cancer in Prolonged Remission

“…Gullo et al 13 reported long-term follow-up of patients with her2-positive mbc in complete remission after chemotherapy and trastuzumab, suggesting that a small proportion of those patients achieve prolonged complete remission. Since 2006, several published studies and case reports have described patients who received long-term trastuzumab and experienced prolonged survival 5,15 .…”

“…According to those authors, their patients are the longest survivors on trastuzumab maintenance therapy in complete remission. A group of patients are also emerging who continue to be disease-free even after discontinuation of trastuzumab therapy 18 , indicating a potential for curable disease in a subset of her2-positive mbc patients 13,19 . That hypothesis was further highlighted in recent case reports of 2 patients in continued remission at 30 and 42 months after withdrawal of trastuzumab maintenance therapy 18 .…”

“…To our knowledge, those durations are the longest reported for persistent complete response after trastuzumab discontinuation. Do those observations 13,19 suggest the probability of a cure in those patients? Discontinuation of trastuzumab by patient choice led to the discovery of both cases.…”

“…In patients with favourable factors, comprehensive molecular and cytogenetic studies of tumour samples are being conducted to identify a subset of patients with her2-positive mbc who are more likely to achieve a durable complete response after treatment with chemotherapy and trastuzumab 13 . The data come essentially from retrospective studies with low patient enrolment.…”