PARP inhibitors are a new form of targeted therapy that can stop cancer cells from repairing their damaged DNA, causing them to die. The FDA recently approved them for the treatment of BRCA-mutation related metastatic breast cancer. Those kinds of cancers are more likely to be triple negative breast cancer, which can be more aggressive. Recent data has shown that women who received PARP inhibitors did better overall than patients who received chemotherapy.
“This broadens our arsenal for the treatment of triple negative breast cancer beyond conventional chemotherapy,” says Dr. Heather McArthur, Medical Director of Breast Oncology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Is My Cancer Really Triple-Negative?
Read More You might be told you have triple-negative breast cancer, that means that your cancer is not being fueled by any of the three main types of receptors: estrogen, progesterone nor the HER2 protein. But now you could be categorized as HER2 low instead of HER2 negative. Breast cancer cells with higher-than-normal levels of HER2 are called HER2-positive, those with low levels of HER2 are (or were) called HER2 negative. Recently, however, researchers have looked to further expand this definition to include patients that have a minimal amount of HER2 expression but do not meet the classic definition for HER2-positive tumors. This group has been called
HER2 "low" and is very important as it represents almost 50% of all patients with breast cancer. This excitement stems from the fact that HER2-low breast cancers are targetable with a recently new FDA-approved
Enhertu (Fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki). It appears that Enhertu is extremely effective for appropriate patients and can greatly improve their quality of life and help them live longer.
Therefore, it is exceedingly important to discuss with your physician about your HER2 status.
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Dr. Heather McArthur is Medical Director of Breast Oncology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Read More
