What is Herceptin?

What is Herceptin? I've heard a lot about it, but I'm not sure what type of treatment it is.

Herceptin (trastuzumab) is a type of targeted treatment for breast cancer. It is a monoclonal antibody which is a type of biological therapy. Somewhere between 15 and 25 out of every 100 patients with breast cancer (15 to 25%) are likely to respond to treatment with Herceptin. This is because their cancer cells have a large amount of a protein called HER2 (they are HER2 positive). Your treatment with Herceptin will depending on the stage of your breast cancer.

The following links take you to more detailed information on

You can also find details of the trial results for Herceptin in early breast cancer in this section of CancerHelp UK.

There is detailed information about all the treatments for breast cancer in the breast cancer section of CancerHelp UK.