Promises borne out in clinical studies

This article reviews lapatinib clinical trials in patients with HER2 (ErbB2)-positive breast cancer, and is a report of a presentation from a symposium at the ECCO 14 congress in 2007.Promising clinical results have been achieved to date with lapatinib, an oral, intracellular, dual-targeted small molecule inhibitor of EGFR (ErbB1) and HER2 in patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. Lapatinib has shown impressive activity in HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer, both first-line and in heavily pretreated patients whose disease has progressed following prior treatment in the metastatic setting with taxanes, anthracyclines and trastuzumab. Lapatinib has also demonstrated activity in inflammatory breast cancer, a particularly aggressive form of the disease. Lapatinib is generally well tolerated, with the most common adverse events being diarrhoea and rash, which can be effectively managed with proactive guidelines.In conclusion, these data demonstrate that lapatinib is a promising new agent in the fight against HER2-positive breast cancer.