Drug Treatments for HER2 Positive Breast Cancer

Breast cancer (BC) is one of the primary causes of mortality for female cancer patients worldwide. In 2020, 2.3 million new cases of breast cancer were diagnosed worldwide and approximately 685,000 female patients died from breast cancer. Breast cancer accounts for about 25% of all female cancer cases and around 16% of all cancer deaths in the world. HER2 overexpression (HER2+) due to the amplification of a segment of genes in chromosome 17 is a common cause of breast cancer, occurring in around 20% of all breast cancers. This article reviews the mechanisms of action of HER2+ breast cancer and its treatments. Generic drugs for breast cancer include chemotherapy agents such as alkylating agents, antimetabolites, and antimicrotubule agents (anthracyclines and taxanes). Drugs targeting HER2+ breast cancer include monoclonal antibodies such as trastuzumab and pertuzumab, antibody-drug conjugates such as ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) and fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd), and tyrosine kinase inhibitors such as lapatinib, neratinib, and tucatinib. Drugs with different mechanisms of action are often combined to obtain maximum therapeutic value. Artificial Intelligence can play a significant role in early breast cancer detection, diagnosis, and treatment. In addition, the use of artificial intelligence can aid healthcare professionals and researchers through its ability to analyze vast amounts of data from mammograms and pre-malignant cancer screening tests.