The uncharted role of HER2 mutant alleles in breast cancer

A new editorial entitled “The unknown role of HER2 mutant alleles in breast cancer has been published in Oncotarget.

Somatic HER2 mutations represent a new class of therapeutic targets for various types of cancer. Treatment with the tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) neratinib as monotherapy continues to be evaluated in HER2-mutant metastatic disease. However, responses are heterogeneous, with frequent early progression.

In this new editorial, researchers Rashi Kalra, Bora Lim, Matthew J. Ellis, and Shyam M. Kavuri of Baylor College of Medicine discuss the understudied effects of individual HER2 mutant alleles on therapeutic response, and a role for HER2 mutation in metastatic propensity and differences in patient outcomes in ER+ invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) versus invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC). The preclinical efficacy of additional agents is also discussed, particularly the pan-HER inhibitor poziotinib.

“In summary, the preclinical findings described above support the clinical investigation of poziotinib in a subset of ER+ mBC harboring somatic HER2 mutations and suggest further studies to evaluate poziotinib as a therapeutic agent in other tumor types,” the researchers write.