Breast cancer cells may express molecules that can be attacked by specific medicines. One such molecule is called human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). If a breast cancer expresses HER2, then doctors use medicines that attack HER2 to help treat the cancer and allow patients to live longer.
A patient may have more than a hundred sites of cancer, but a doctor only knows about HER2 expression in one or a few cancer sites that have been biopsied (sampled with a needle or knife). New evidence shows that although one biopsied tumor site may not express HER2, other tumor sites may still express it. But then how do doctors know which patients should receive medicines that attack HER2? To biopsy every tumor site would be difficult and very painful. Thus, we need a new method of evaluating HER2 expression at all tumor sites.
Our research will develop a painless imaging test to evaluate HER2 expression at all tumor sites in a patient. If successful, this will help doctors determine which patients should receive drugs that attack HER2. With over 900,000 women currently living with metastatic breast cancer, this is an advance that could help reduce breast cancer deaths in tens of thousands of patients.
In addition, by learning how to use imaging to guide HER2-targeted treatment of breast cancer, we may help develop new ways to use imaging to guide treatment of many other cancers and other diseases.
| 
