Key points
- Targeted therapies are designed to prevent tumour cell proliferation and survival by means such as targeting overexpression of specific proteins or inhibiting signalling pathways.
- There are multiple targeted therapies available for breast cancer. However, not all are funded in New Zealand.
- Targeted therapy is the mainstay of treatment for HER2+ breast cancer.
What is targeted therapy?
Targeted therapy is a cancer treatment that targets the change in breast cancer cells that help them grow, divide and spread. While traditional breast cancer treatments such as endocrine therapies are, technically, targeted therapies as they target oestrogen receptors, the term targeted therapies is more often applied to newer products, such as monoclonal antibodies and kinase inhibitors.
There are targeted therapies available for:
Targeted therapies include:
Trastuzumab (Herceptin) - Used to treat HER2+ breast cancer in early stage and advanced breast cancer (IV funded - SC unfunded).
Trastuzumab Emtansine (T-DM1) – Used to treat HER2+ breast cancer in early breast cancer (unfunded) and advanced breast cancer (funded).
Pertuzumab (Perjeta) – Used to treat HER2+ breast cancer in early breast cancer (unfunded) and advanced breast cancer (funded).
Fulvestrant (Faslodex) – Hormone receptor-positive advanced breast cancer in post-menopausal women in combination with abemaciclib, palbociclib or ribociclib (funded).
Palbociclib (Ibrance) – Hormone receptor positive and HER2- advanced breast cancer in combination with a non-steroidal aromatase inhibitor as initial endocrine based therapy or fulvestrant in patients who have received prior endocrine therapy. Patients must be post menopause (natural or chemically induced) (funded).
Olaparib (Lynparza) – Monotherapy for patients with germline BRCA mutated HER2- advanced breast cancer previously treated with chemotherapy (unfunded).
Abemaciclib (Verzenio) – Hormone receptor positive and HER2- advanced breast cancer in combination with a non-steroidal aromatase inhibitor or fulvestrant as initial endocrine therapy, or following prior endocrine therapy (unfunded).
Ribociclib (KISQALI) – Hormone receptor positive and HER2- advanced breast cancer in combination with an aromatase inhibitor or fulvestrant (unfunded).
Sacituzumab Govitecan (Trodelvy) – Unresectable triple negative advanced breast cancer following two or more prior systemic therapies, including at least one for advanced breast cancer (unfunded).
Olaparib (Lynparza)
Olaparib, a PARP inhibitor, is a treatment option for people with BRCA 1/2 gene mutation in TNBC. Olaparib is not publicly funded in New Zealand for TNBC.
