Journal of Oncology

Review Article

Anti-EGFR Therapy: Mechanism and Advances in Clinical Efficacy in Breast Cancer

Table 8

Summary of Anti-EGFR therapy agents. The 5 anti-EGFR therapy drugs discussed in this review: these 5 drugs are currently being used or in clinical phase testing for anti-EGFR therapy of breast cancer. All of these agents are either already being used in the clinical setting or are in Phase III clinical development.


Drug name	Other names for the drug	Classification of drug	Target receptor(s) of drug	Special cancer types and efficacy	Important comments	Drug manufacturer

Cetuximab	Erbitux (humanized form of the murine MoAb: C225)	MoAb (chimeric IgG₁)	Blocks EGFR;	A large variety of solid tumors: -CRC/mCRC; -SCCHN;	Most widely used anti-EGFR monoclonal antibody used in solid tumor therapy (07/2007) [44];	ImClone Systems, Inc., Princeton, NJ. & NY, NY.
Trastuzumab	Herceptin	MoAb (human IgG₁)	Blocks HER2/neu;	Mostly widely used MoAb in treating HER2+ -overexpressing cases of BC;	Extremely important drug in breast cancer;	F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, Basel, Switzerland.
Erlotinib	Tarceva (OSI-774)	smTKI	Inhibition of EGFR;	Solid tumor therapy: -Pancreatic cancer; -NSCLC (recent);	Nothing unique;	Genetech, Inc., South San Fransisco, CA.
Gefitinib	Iressa (ZD1839)	smTKI -anilinoquinazoline	Inhibition of EGFR;	Previously used for NSCLC-currently w/d by FDA;	Recently withdrawn by FDA for treatment of NSCLC;	AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, Wilmington, DE.
				In clinical phase testing for BC as well as other metastatic & advanced cancers;
Lapatinib	Tykerb (GW572016)	smTKI	Both EGFR and HER2/neu; (Dual-TKI Action)	Solid tumor therapy: -BC.	Extremely important smTKI in current BC treatment.	Glaxo-Smith-Kline, Philadelphia, PA.

MoAb: Monoclonal antibody; EGFR: Epidermal growth factor receptor (ErbB1); HER-2/neu: Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2; smTKI: Small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor; w/d: Withdrawn; NSCLC: Nonsmall cell lung cancer; BC: Breast cancer; CRC: Colorectal cancer; mCRC: Metastatic colorectal cancer; SCCHN: Squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.