Breast cancer research and treatment
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Breast Cancer Res. Treat. · May 2008
Review Meta AnalysisCardiotoxicity and incidence of brain metastases after adjuvant trastuzumab for early breast cancer: the dark side of the moon? A meta-analysis of the randomized trials.
In five randomized clinical trials (RCTs), adjuvant trastuzumab (T) for early stage breast cancer with human epidermal growth-factor receptor-2 over-expression/gene-amplification has shown to decrease the risk of both recurrence and death. The issue regarding the long-term safety profile of such drug is still open; in particular, questions remain about long-term cardiotoxicity, and specific patterns of relapse such as brain metastases (BM). In order to quantify the magnitude of these two risks, and then balance those with the survival outcome, a literature-based meta-analysis was performed. ⋯ The overall outcome results show that trastuzumab is one of the most important discoveries in oncology. Nevertheless, the biological activity of trastuzumab needs to be investigated more extensively to explore both long-term safety and specific relapse patterns.