Trastuzumab Treatment Guidelines

Patient Selection

• The American Society of Clinical Oncology recommends selecting patients for trastuzumab treatment based on HER2 protein overexpression or HER2 gene amplification in tumor samples, with overexpression defined as 3+ by immunohistochemistry 1, 5
• The American Society of Clinical Oncology also recommends selecting patients with HER2 gene amplification, defined as a FISH ratio > 2.0 1, 5

Treatment Regimens

• The National Comprehensive Cancer Network recommends an adjuvant treatment regimen consisting of doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, and paclitaxel, or docetaxel and carboplatin, with trastuzumab for patients with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer 4
• The National Comprehensive Cancer Network also recommends a treatment regimen of paclitaxel and trastuzumab for patients with low-risk disease 4

Treatment Duration

• The European Society for Medical Oncology recommends a treatment duration of 1 year for adjuvant trastuzumab therapy 3

Clinical Benefits

• Trastuzumab improves response rates, time to progression, and overall survival when combined with chemotherapy compared to chemotherapy alone in the metastatic setting, with a significant reduction in the risk of disease progression 1