Pertuzumab biosimilar with trastuzumab and chemotherapy neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapy for early stage and locally advanced HER2-positive breast cancer

Pertuzumab biosimilar is in clinical development for the adjuvant and neoadjuvant treatment of invasive early stage or locally advanced breast cancer (BC) that is human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2) positive (+). HER2 is a protein found on some cancer cells. Neoadjuvant therapy comes before primary treatment. Adjuvant therapy follows the primary treatment. BC is experienced when abnormal cells in the breast begin to grow and divide in an uncontrolled way and form a tumour. Early-stage BC means the cancer has not spread beyond the breast or lymph nodes. Locally advanced means the cancer has spread from the breast to the lymph nodes close to the breast, to the skin of the breast or to the chest wall. HER2-targeted drugs such as pertuzumab have contributed to greater survival outcome in HER2 + BC patients. However, such therapies can be costly. Biosimilars are medicines that are very close in structure and function to an existing medicine but are usually at substantially lower cost.