Dr. Santin on Impact of Trastuzumab in Uterine Serous Carcinoma

Alessandro D. Santin, MD, professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences at Yale School of Medicine, discusses the impact of trastuzumab (Herceptin) in patients with uterine serous carcinoma.

Treatment with trastuzumab and chemotherapy elicited a progression-free survival (PFS) of over 50% versus chemotherapy alone in patients with HER2-positive uterine serous carcinoma. The median PFS increased from 8.0 months with carboplatin and paclitaxel to 12.6 months with the addition of trastuzumab to the same chemotherapy regimen.

Although preliminary, the results of this randomized trial demonstrate the importance of testing for HER2/neu expression in patients with endometrial cancer, says Santin. Dysregulation of HER2/neu may occur in more than one-fourth of the tumors, and HER2/neu overexpression has been reported in as many as 60% of patients with uterine serous carcinoma. The overexpression of HER2/neu would give a patient the opportunity to be treated with trastuzumab in addition to chemotherapy.