Lapatinib Inhibits Brain Metastases in Breast Cancer

FRIDAY, Aug. 8 (HealthDay News) -- In a mouse model of metastatic breast cancer, lapatinib reduces the number of large brain metastases, according to research published in the Aug. 6 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Brunilde Gril, Ph.D., of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., and colleagues injected mice with a breast cancer cell line associated with MDA-MB-231-BR metastases, including some cells that were engineered to over-express the HER2 protein. Five days later, they treated the mice with either 100 mg lapatinib/kg body weight, 30 mg lapatinib/kg body weight, or placebo.

After 24 days, the researchers found that the 100-mg lapatinib group had 54 percent fewer large metastases than the placebo group while treatment with 30-mg lapatinib had no effect. In mice injected with 231-BR-HER2 cells, those treated with either dose of lapatinib had 50 percent to 53 percent fewer large brain metastases than those treated with placebo.

"We propose a scenario in which standard treatments such as neurosurgery and stereotactic radiosurgery are used to treat clinical metastases and currently unavailable molecular therapeutics are then used to hold the remaining micrometastases in check," the authors write. "One possible molecular therapeutic is lapatinib, a dual inhibitor of epidermal growth factor receptor and HER2 kinases."

One of the study authors reported owning stock in GlaxoSmithKline, the maker of lapatinib.

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