[Herceptin as a single agent in patients with HER2 overexpressing metastatic breast cancer]

To evaluate the efficacy and adverse reactions of Herceptin as a single agent in patients with HER2 overexpressing metastatic breast cancer.

There were two kinds of therapy protocol. One was loading-dose of 4 mg/kg intravenously, followed by a 2 mg/kg maintenance dose of weekly intervals. The other was loading-dose of 8 mg/kg, followed by 6 mg/kg of every three weeks intervals.

Among 20 patients with evaluated efficacy, there was no complete response, 5 patients (25.0%) showed partial response (PR), 5 (25.0%) stable disease (SD) and 10 (50.0%) progressive disease (PD). Of 22 patients, the overall response rate was 22.7%. The median time of disease progression and treatment failure was 6 weeks and 6.5 weeks, respectively. The most common adverse reactions were fever and chill. Cardiac symptoms could be seen in some patients.

Herceptin is an active agent for the patients with HER2 overexpressing metastatic breast cancer and the adverse events are well tolerated.