Physicians Update WINTER 201 5 Cancer Issue Breast Cancer p. 1 Colorectal Cancer p. 3 Melanoma p. 6 Pediatric Sarcomas p. 8 Radiation Oncology p. 10 BREAST CANCER Newer Herceptin Treatment Improves Women’s Survival Before the targeted breast-cancer drug Herceptin (trastuzumab) was developed, breast-cancer patients with high levels of the human epidural growth factor receptor 2-positive (HER2+) faced a bleak prognosis. Their aggressive tumors were less likely to respond to standard therapies. Now, these women have among the highest survival rates. treatments by targeting therapies that are most appropriate for the genetic changes present in each patient’s tumor,” says Dennis Slamon, MD, director of UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Revlon/UCLA Women’s Cancer Research Program and the Translational Oncology Research Laboratory at UCLA. “The HER2+ story demonstrates that we can provide more effective and less toxic Herceptin now is standard treatment for women with HER2+ tumors. continued on p. 4