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Linked HER2 amplification to aggressive breast cancer and drove trastuzumab and later palbociclib to approval.
Dennis Slamon is Director of Clinical/Translational Research at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and Chief of its Division of Hematology-Oncology. A medical oncologist specialising in breast cancer, his 1987 Science paper tied HER2 amplification to shorter survival and he led the clinical development of trastuzumab, later leading palbociclib development and the NATALEE adjuvant ribociclib trial. His papers include the Science report correlating relapse and survival with amplification of the HER-2/neu oncogene and the New England Journal of Medicine trial of chemotherapy plus a monoclonal antibody against HER2 in metastatic breast cancer. His work spans HER2-positive and HR-positive breast cancer and CDK4/6 inhibitors.
| Title | Journal | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Human breast cancer: correlation of relapse and survival with amplification of the HER-2/neu oncogene | Science | 1987 |
| Use of chemotherapy plus a monoclonal antibody against HER2 for metastatic breast cancer that overexpresses HER2 | New England Journal of Medicine | 2001 |
| NATALEE: three years of ribociclib after surgery in a broad population of hormone-receptor-positive early breast cancer | New England Journal of Medicine | 2024 |
| Slamon 1989: HER2/neu in human breast and ovarian cancer | Science | 1989 |
Ribociclib is a second adjuvant CDK4/6 option, and the only one with data in node-negative stage II disease. Roughly 3 in 100 patients avoid a relapse or death at three years, so the decision depends heavily on individual risk, tolerance of a three-year oral drug, and cost. Whether the benefit persists after treatment ends, as it did with abemaciclib, needs longer follow-up.
This was the first proof that a monoclonal antibody against a growth receptor could extend life in a common solid tumour, and it created HER2-positive breast cancer as a disease treated differently from the rest. Its cardiac finding shaped every later HER2 regimen, which pair trastuzumab with taxanes rather than anthracyclines.
This study confirmed HER2 as a prognostic marker and a therapeutic target, showed that immunohistochemistry could identify the patients, and extended the target to ovarian cancer. It set up the clinical development of trastuzumab and the HER2 testing that every breast cancer now receives.
Every HER2 test, every trastuzumab prescription and the whole HER2-positive breast cancer category trace back to this observation. It is the model for how a genomic marker of bad prognosis became a drug target and then the basis for one of the largest survival gains in solid tumour oncology.
Shares NATALEE, NATALEE: three years of ribociclib after surgery in a broad population of hormone-receptor-positive early breast cancer, Ribociclib, CDK4/6.
Shares NATALEE: three years of ribociclib after surgery in a broad population of hormone-receptor-positive early breast cancer, Ribociclib, CDK4/6, Palbociclib.
Shares CDK4/6, Palbociclib, HER2, HER2-positive breast cancer.
Shares Ribociclib, CDK4/6, HER2-positive breast cancer, HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer.
Shares CDK4/6, Palbociclib, Trastuzumab, HER2.
Shares UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, CDK4/6, Palbociclib, HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer.
Shares CDK4/6, Palbociclib, HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer.
Shares Ribociclib, Palbociclib, HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer.