UK HER2 patients miss out on best treatment

Women with a particularly aggressive form of early-stage breast cancer may miss out on optimal treatment which may include chemotherapy and Swiss drug major Roche's Herceptin (trastuzumab) as a result of untimely or missing HER2-status test results, according to doctors responding to the results from a North of England Cancer Network audit.

Only 26% of the 200 clinicians that took part in the UK survey said that HER2 test results were routinely available at the time when a decision is being made about whether a patient will benefit from chemotherapy together with the HER2-targeted treatment trastuzumab during the multi-disciplinary team meeting, according to the audit.

These patients are at double the risk of cancer recurrence during the first few years after diagnosis when they do not receive adjuvant trastuzumab with their chemotherapy, according to trials involving over 13,000 women. This risk is even higher when women with HER2-positive cancer do not receive chemotherapy.