Trastuzumab therapies in human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 cancer

Abstract

Monoclonal antibodies therapy had shown critical importance in terms of personalized, disease-specific medicine. One example of monoclonal antibody is Trastuzumab, targeting on diseases such as breast cancer. Despite side effects like fever, chills, headache, infection, congestive heart failure, Trastuzumab is proved to be highly effective in experimental studies and clinical practice. Research has shown that through binding with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2, Trastuzumab is able to decrease its signaling pathways and therefore, inhibit cell proliferation and initiate apoptosis. The results of completed clinical trials and ongoing experimental studies, mainly focusing on the combination of trastuzumab and other treatments such as chemotherapy, have shown that compared with monotherapy or traditional conventional treatments such as surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, etc., the combination of trastuzumab has a longer survival period and a lower recurrence rate. Some prime examples are discussed in this review to indicate recent trends of research on this topic. In addition, an in-depth analysis of possible directions of development of this technology is introduced.