[Trastuzumab (herceptin) for the medical treatment of breast cancer]. / Trastuzumab (herceptine) dans le traitement medical des cancers du sein.

BACKGROUND: Trastuzumab is humanized monoclonal antibody targeting her 2 neu receptor, overexpressed in 20% of breast cancers and part of the complex of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor. AIM: To review new advances in the knowledge of the practical use of "trastuzumab (Herceptin ®)" in breast cancer. METHODS: Review of literature using medical data bases (Medline, Science direct) with the following key words: breast cancer, targeted therapy, HER2 neu, transtuzumab/herceptine RESULTS: Trastuzumab represent an important advance in breast cancer treatment with an improvement of median survival in metastatic setting and overall and disease-free survival in adjuvant setting in association with chemotherapy. Herceptin remain well tolerated with a low and rare risk of cardiac failure. CONCLUSION: Trastuzumab is a new therapeutic tool very interesting to ameliorate prognosis of breast cancer.

[Update on medical therapies of nasopharyngeal carcinomas]. / Actualités des traitements médicaux des cancers du nasopharynx.

Nasopharyngeal carcinomas (NPC) are predominantly of undifferentiated type (UCNT or undifferentiated carcinoma of nasopharyngeal type), rare (<1/100,000) and sporadic in occidental countries, but endemic in the Mediterranean area of intermediate incidence (2 to 10/100,000) and highly frequent (>10/100,000) in South East Asia. NPC staging is based on TNM UICC 2002 that has a prognostic and therapeutic orientation impact. Irradiation of the primitive tumor and its extensions remains the standard loco-regional treatment. The recent introduction of primary and concomitant chemotherapy leads to an improvement in terms of overall and disease-free survival, specially for for high-risk-patients (T3-4 and N2-3 disease). Prognosis remain linked to T, N, histologic type and quality of response to chemotherapy and radiotherapy.