Trastuzumab ( Herceptin ) -research And Development

What is breast cancer? A female’s breast is made up of fibrous tissue, fatty tissue, and lobes of glandular tissue that eject milk to the exterior. However, breast cancer occurs when the normal cells in the breast begin to grow and divide at an unregulated speed. In all honesty, I want to know more about this issue because of the proven statics. Approximately forty thousand women and four hundred men die each year from breast cancer. In this article “Our Feel-Good War on Breast Cancer” by Peggy Orenstein she stresses the significance of early detection and creating mindfulness of breast cancer. Orenstein discuss how most people discover they have breast cancer by taking a mammogram conversely the real impact is somewhat different. Whereas,

Over the past decade breast cancer has become one of the most predominant diseases in the United States. Breast cancer starts out as a malignant tumor in the tissues of the breast which is formed from the uncontrolled growth of abnormal breast cells. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, but it can also appear in men. (Stephan, 2010)

Breast cancers have been plaguing women since ancient times as it was mentioned in almost every recorded period of history. One of the first to note this disease, more than 3,500 years ago, were the Ancient Egyptians when they referred to “bulging tumors of the breast that have no cure”. Hippocrates who is referenced as the father of Western Medicine had his theories about breast cancer. His suggestion was that the cancer was caused by excessive black bile. In A.D. 200, hundreds of years after Hippocrates ventured his thoughts about the disease, Galen also went on the record suggesting that some breast cancer tumors were more serious than others. It was also believed that this cancer affected the entire body rather than being limited to the breasts.

An effective breast cancer treatment in some women can be traced to the root of the disease. Some of the most aggressive form of breast cancers are caused by a transmembrane receptor protein known as Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 (HER2) which is a member of the HER family of receptor tyrosine kinase. Approximately 20,000 HER2 receptor are normally expressed on surface of healthy breast cell however, in about 25% of breast cancer cells the HER2 protein is overexpressed resulting in tumour cells with as many as over 2 million receptors present on their surface. This cancer is known as HER2 positive (HER2+). The effect of HER2 overexpression is an increase in receptor mediated intracellular signalling causing the cell

There are many different diseases that terrorize the human race every day. Of all of these sicknesses, one of the most devastating is breast cancer. Breast cancer touches all types of people all over the world each day. It is actually the second most common cancer amongst women in the United States. One in every eight women in the United States has some form of breast cancer and currently, the death rates are higher than any other cancer with the exception of lung cancer. Cancer is defined by the Merriam-Webster Online dictionary as “a malignant tumor of potentially unlimited growth that expands locally by invasion and systemically by metastasis.” Therefore, breast cancer is a disease of

As the cells change, it begins to divide rapidly causing a tumor to form. The term “breast cancer” refers to a malignant tumor that has developed from cells in the breast. Breast cancer can begin in different areas of the breast, or in some cases, the tissues in between. There are many different types of breast cancer, including non-invasive, invasive, recurrent, metastatic breast cancer, as well as the intrinsic or molecular subtypes of breast cancer. Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is overexpressed in around 20-30% of breast cancer tumors. It is associated with a more aggressive disease, higher recurrence rate, and increased mortality.

As the long term outcome of radiation therapy was generally poor among the LRR occurring following mastectomy, His RA et al. had concluded that the long term survival as well as local control for loco regional recurrence of breast cancer after mastectomy were high among patients with favorable subgroup (1- DFS ≥2years, 2- isolated chest wall recurrence, 3- tumor size <3cm). They also find that this favorable subgroup of patients will reasonably benefit from aggressive treatment. (18)

Breast cancer constitutes the second most prevalent cancer most common among women of the world with an estimated 1.62 million reported cases in 2012 which constitutes 25% of all cancer cases and ranks fifth among mortality due to cancer (Ferlay et al., 2015). In the United States, according to American Cancer Society an

Purpose Statement: This speech has a primary goal of educating the audience and to give a better understanding of what breast cancer is and how it can be treated with detection by a vast variety of methods. It will also give better understanding that not only women but men also are susceptible to breast cancer.

All around the world, breast cancer has become a huge issue and has effected many lives.

It's not clear what causes breast cancer. Breast cancer occurs when breast cells begin growing abnormally. These cells divide more rapidly than healthy cells do and form a lump or mass. The cells may metastasize through your breast to your lymph nodes or to other parts of your body. Breast cancer most often begins with cells in the milk-producing ducts. Breast cancer may also begin in the glandular tissue called lobules or in other cells or tissue within the breast. The most common are breast cancer gene 1 (BRCA1) and breast cancer gene 2 (BRCA2), both of which significantly increase the risk of both breast and ovarian cancer. During lumpectomy, which may be referred to as breast-sparing surgery or wide local excision, the surgeon removes the tumor and a small margin of surrounding healthy tissue. Mastectomy is an operation to remove all of your breast tissue. Most mastectomy procedures remove all of the breast tissue, the lobules, ducts, fatty tissue and some skin, including the nipple and areola. Radiation therapy uses high-powered beams of energy, such as X-rays and protons, to kill cancer cells. External beam radiation is commonly used after lumpectomy for early-stage breast cancer. Chemotherapy uses drugs to destroy cancer cells. If your cancer has a high risk of returning or spreading to another part of your body. The most common sites of metastases are the bones, lungs, liver and brain. No one dies from breast cancer that remains in the breast. The lump itself is not what kills. The spread of cancerous cells to a vital organ is what

Vogel, Charles L., et al. "Efficacy and safety of trastuzumab as a single agent in first-line treatment of HER2-overexpressing metastatic breast cancer." Journal of Clinical Oncology 20.3 (2002): 719-726.

Herceptin (trastuzumab) is a therapeutic monoclonal antibody, which is specifically designed to target HER2 (human epidermal growth factor 2) receptors found on breast cells( Tan, 2010) . HER2 is a receptor protein that is a member of the epidermal growth factor receptor family and is over expressed in approximately 10-20% of breast cancers that have amplification of the HER2 gene (Jatoi, et al., 2010). Herceptin has been found to selectively apply anti-tumor effects in cancer models and patients with HER2+ breast cancer (Gajria & Chandarlapaty, n.d.). Although all normal breast cells present HER2 receptors on their surface, some cells may express more receptors, as high as two million receptors per cell (Vu & Claret, 2012), due to a mutation causing over expression of the HER2 gene. As a result of the increased number of HER2 receptors on the surface of breast cells, more hormones will bind and increased signals are given off, causing the cells to divide quicker and more frequently, resulting in HER2 positive breast cancer.

George Crile began to think that cancer stayed in the same place, but would spread around the body instead, in 1955. Bernard Fisher thought that simpler breast-conserving surgery which the patient would go through radiation or chemotherapy after surgery would have a just as effective affect as radical mastectomy. As modern medicine developed, more women avoided mastectomies. More and more therapies and treatments came out and mammography also started to detect cancer

Unfortunately, in recent years, more and more women have obtained similar scars that are inevitably the result of a long, tragic battle with breast cancer. This disease has become an epidemic across the globe, infecting women in every cultural and social background imaginable. In fact, this disease has impacted