Herceptin Mode Of Action In The Treatment Of Metastatic Breast Cancer

Herceptin, also known as trastuzumab, is a recombinant DNA-derived humanized monoclonal antibody that selectively acts on the extracellular site of human epidermal growth factor receptor-2. It is also currently approved as a targeted treatment for breast cancer and advanced gastric cancer.

Herceptin mode of ActionⅠ-Combined anthracyclines

Anthracyclines are one of the commonly used treatment options in adjuvant intervention for patients with HER2-negative early breast cancer, and sequential trastuzumab therapy can greatly improve the prognosis of patients with HER2-positive breast cancer. In recent years, anthracyclines have been gradually used in the treatment of breast cancer and other related diseases, commonly used as doxorubicin, epirubicin, arubicin and so on. Anthracyclines are a class of anti-tumor antibiotics, which produce anti-tumor active chemicals through microorganisms. They have the advantages of broad anti-cancer spectrum and high clinical efficacy. They are commonly used drugs after breast cancer surgery at this stage. Pirarubicin enters into cells through an active transport mechanism, binds to the nucleus, prevents mRNA synthesis, inhibits DNA replication, prevents tumor cell division and proliferation, and is highly sensitive to late-stage DNA synthesis of tumor cells. Combined application with Herceptin can further improve the effect of drug application, and at the same time, it can increase the duration of the drug during the treatment process. The combination of Herceptin and anthracyclines will cause certain cardiotoxicity. Therefore, the combination of the above two drugs is not recommended from the clinical safety point of view.

Herceptin mode of ActionⅡ-Combined paclitaxel

At this stage of clinical treatment of metastatic breast cancer patients, Herceptin combined with Paclitaxel treatment measures of high clinical recognition, medical research confirmed that the above treatment program applied to metastatic breast cancer has a significant effect, patient tolerance is good, the effective rate of clinical treatment is 30% ~ 40% .Some reported studies suggest that the above-mentioned treatment has an effective rate of up to 60%. The comparison of differences in clinical treatment efficacy is affected by various factors such as drug dosage, patient infusion time and so on. Herceptin acts on the receptor signaling pathway, and paclitaxel acts on the biologically targeted therapy of HER2-overexpressing breast cancer. Therefore, there are high-purity recombinant DNA-derived humanized monoclonal antibodies against the HER2 receptor. Many foreign reports suggest that Herceptin alone has a better effect in the treatment of HER2 overexpressing metastatic breast cancer, and the combined application of paclitaxel is more effective than Herceptin alone. Herceptin acts on the receptor signaling pathway, and paclitaxel acts in the microtubule system. Studies have shown that treatment that causes downregulation of the HER2 receptor to inhibit its phosphorylation increases sensitivity to paclitaxel. On the other hand, paclitaxel-exposed breast cancer cells produced functional upregulation of the HER2 receptor, making tumors more sensitive to the antiproliferative effects of Herceptin. In addition, the use of Herceptin combined with Docetaxel has a strong direct synergistic effect. In actual application intervention, the degree of disease control is obvious. The results of a survey suggest that European and American countries combine Docetaxel with Herceptin, which is characterized by: The extensiveness and curative effect are significantly increased, and the treatment efficiency is high. However, there will still be obvious hematological toxicity during the treatment, so the combination of medication and stem cell support needs to continuously reduce the medication dose during the period, but it has not been further carried out at this stage.

Herceptin mode of ActionⅢ-Combined Vinorelbine

Relevant studies have shown that vinorelbine is one of the drugs with high curative effect in monotherapy of advanced breast cancer related studies, with 17% to 36% of previous clinical treatment, and 40% to 44% of untreated effective rate. The combined application of Herceptin and Vinorelbine has a certain synergistic effect, and studies have shown that the combined application of the above two drugs has a certain effect. Studies have shown that when the two drugs are used in combination, the clinical treatment effective rate is as high as 84%, and the above-mentioned treatments are well tolerated, with good clinical efficacy and few adverse reactions. The main adverse reactions are bone marrow suppression, digestive tract reactions and liver damage. Among them, the common adverse reactions are bone marrow suppression, leukopenia and thrombocytopenia, and the effect on hemoglobin is slightly less. Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor is often given routinely after chemotherapy. Therefore, the patient did not experience death due to neutropenia. Another significant adverse reaction is gastrointestinal reactions and liver function damage, manifested as nausea, vomiting, and decreased appetite, but the incidence of grades III to IV is low, which may be combined with gastric mucosal protective drugs, antiemetics and hepatoprotective drugs. Therefore, how to effectively reduce the adverse reactions of chemotherapy drugs during the intervention process of the combined chemotherapy regimen deserves further research.

Summary

For patients with metastatic breast cancer who are suitable for the clinical use of Herceptin, whether it is a single drug therapy or a synergistic drug therapy, certain results have been obtained and confirmed in clinical medical research. With the continuous development and advancement of modern medical technology, the above-mentioned Herceptin mode of action  will provide a reference for more valuable clinical research.