The HER2/neu alteration is associated with aggressive disease that grows quickly, resulting in a poor prognosis. Patients with this alteration relapse more quickly and die more often than those who do not have it. Based on 12 years of laboratory and clinical research by Slamon and other UCLA researchers, Herceptin targets the HER2/neu alteration and blocks its effect. It was among the first targeted therapies for cancer when it was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1998. Since then, other successful targeted therapies have been approved, including Gleevec for leukemia and Avastin for advanced colorectal cancer, both also tested in Jonsson Cancer Center clinical trials.

Targeted therapies attack what is broken in a cell that makes it cancerous, resulting in fewer side effects than traditional therapies. Herceptin blocks a receptor on the surface of the cell that receives excess growth signals, interrupting the out-of-control growth that characterizes cancer.

Slamon, director of Clinical/Translational Research at UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center, said the two studies are important because, as Sledge said, they provide an example of how translational research is supposed to work.

"This shows you can actually predict what will work in patients," Slamon said. "That's why these articles appear together. The first shows what we did in the lab and the second proves that it is effective in patients with this alteration."

The treatment combination currently is being tested in large, randomized Phase III studies to further confirm the UCLA results and provide proof of principle. If the studies are successful, it will change the way breast cancer patients with this genetic alteration are treated, Pegram said.

UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center is composed of more than 240 cancer researchers and clinicians engaged in cancer research, prevention, detection, control and education. The center, one of the nation's largest comprehensive cancer centers, is dedicated to promoting cancer research and applying the results to clinical situations. In 2003 the Jonsson Cancer Center was named the best cancer center in the Western United States by U.S. News & World Report, a ranking it has held for four consecutive years.

For more information on the Jonsson Cancer Center, visit wwwncer.mednet.ucla.