Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology
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Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is one of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer. Lapatinib, an oral reversible inhibitor of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and human EGFR 2 (HER-2), demonstrated clinical activity in four of five IBC patients in phase I trials. We conducted a phase II trial to confirm the sensitivity of IBC to lapatinib, to determine whether response is HER-2 or EGFR dependent, and to elucidate a molecular signature predictive of lapatinib sensitivity. ⋯ Lapatinib is well tolerated with clinical activity in heavily pretreated HER-2+, but not EGFR+/HER-2-, IBC. In this study, coexpression of pHER-2 and pHER-3 in tumors seems to predict for a favorable response to lapatinib. These findings warrant further investigation of lapatinib monotherapy or combination therapy in HER-2+ IBC.
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Multicenter Study
Predictors of contralateral prophylactic mastectomy in women with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation: the Hereditary Breast Cancer Clinical Study Group.
To evaluate the rate of prophylactic contralateral mastectomy in an international cohort of women with hereditary breast cancer and to evaluate the predictors of uptake of preventive surgery. ⋯ Age, type of initial breast cancer surgery, and prophylactic oophorectomy are all predictive of prophylactic contralateral mastectomy in women with breast cancer and a BRCA mutation. The acceptance of contralateral preventive mastectomy was much higher in North America than in Europe.