Lapatinib for breast cancer: a review of the current literature.

IMPORTANCE OF THE FIELD

The identification of HER-2 expression as a predictive and prognostic marker revolutionized breast cancer. Trastuzumab, a humanized mAb, improves survival in both early and advanced HER-2 overexpressing breast cancer. However, many cancers either do not respond or develop resistance to this agent. Lapatinib is an oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor which has both HER-1 and -2 activities and has been licensed for use in recurrent breast cancer that overexpresses HER-2. Studies of lapatinib in early breast cancer are ongoing.

AREAS COVERED IN THIS REVIEW

A PubMed search was conducted using 'lapatinib' and 'breast cancer' as the key words. All published works up to July 2010 were reviewed. A manual review of abstracts presented at the ASCO Annual meeting and the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium was conducted for the last 2 years. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge of lapatinib and pose questions which need to be addressed as we further expand our knowledge of the HER-2 subtypes of breast cancer.

WHAT THE READER WILL GAIN

The reader will gain an up-to-date and comprehensive review of the current literature as it pertains to the safety and efficacy of lapatinib in the treatment of breast cancer.

TAKE HOME MESSAGE

Lapatinib has provided an alternative for the treatment of advanced HER-2 overexpressing breast cancer and is currently being assessed in early disease.