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MINI REVIEW article

Front. Cell Dev. Biol.

Sec. Cancer Cell Biology

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcell.2025.1451471

Advances in research and current challenges in the treatment of advanced HER2 -low breast cancer

Provisionally accepted
  • Nanning Maternal and Child Health Hospital, Nanning, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) -low breast cancer is defined as breast cancer with an immunohistochemistry (IHC) score of 1+ or 2+ and insitu hybridisation (ISH) negative. The traditional HER2 classification (negative or positive) has limitations, with only 15-20% of the breast cancer population being positive and suitable for HER2-targeted therapy. The new clinical study DESTINY-Breast04 show that trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd) has a significant effect on advanced HER2 -low breast cancers, and this classification accounts for about half of the advanced breast cancer population. However, the detection methods and evaluation criteria for HER2-low breast cancer have not been standardised yet, and the toxicity and resistance mechanisms associated with T-DXd therapy are still unclear. This article focuses on the above questions and describes the progress and challenges of T-DXd related therapy in the treatment of advanced breast cancer patients with low HER2 expression.

    Keywords: breast cancer, HER2 low expression, T-DXd therapy, Treatment, HER2-targeted therapies

    Received: 19 Jun 2024; Accepted: 20 Feb 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Qin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Qiang Qin, Nanning Maternal and Child Health Hospital, Nanning, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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