Herceptin Overview

Trastuzumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody that acts on the HER2/neu receptor. Trastuzumab's principal use is as an anti-cancer therapy in breast cancer in patients whose tumors over express this receptor. Trastuzumab is administered either once a week or once every three weeks intravenously for 30 to 90 minutes. Amplification of HER2/neu occurs in 20-30% of early-stage breast cancers. It encodes the extracellular domain of HER2. Although the signaling pathways...