Management of Brain Metastases from Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 Positive (HER2+) Breast Cancer

Tresa M McGranahan; Alipi V Bonm; Jennifer M Specht; Vyshak Venur; Simon S Lo

doi:10.3390/cancers14205136

Management of Brain Metastases from Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 Positive (HER2+) Breast Cancer

Cancers (Basel). 2022 Oct 20;14(20):5136. doi: 10.3390/cancers14205136.

Authors

Tresa M McGranahan¹, Alipi V Bonm², Jennifer M Specht³, Vyshak Venur^{1

3}, Simon S Lo⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology, Alvord Brain Tumor Center, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
² Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, Seattle, WA 98101, USA.
³ Division of Medical Oncology, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center/University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98109, USA.
⁴ Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.

Abstract

In the past 5 years, the treatment options available to patients with HER2+ breast cancer brain metastasis (BCBM) have expanded. The longer survival of patients with HER2+ BCBM renders understanding the toxicities of local therapies even more important to consider. After reviewing the available literature for HER2 targeted systemic therapies as well as local therapies, we present a simplified algorithm for when to prioritize systemic therapies over local therapies in patients with HER2+ BCBM.

Keywords: Human Epidermal growth factor Receptor 2; brain metastasis; breast cancer.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.