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Breast Cancer

Lapatinib-Associated Toxicity and Practical Management Recommendations

Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Gillette Center for Women's Cancers, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Key Words. Lapatinib • Dual tyrosine kinase inhibitor • Breast cancer • EGFR • ErbB-1 • ErbB-2 HER-2 • Toxicity

Correspondence: Beverly Moy, M.D., M.P.H., Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Gillette Center for Women's Cancers, 55 Fruit Street, Lawrence House, LRH 304, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA. Telephone: 617-726-4920; Fax: 617-643-0589; e-mail: bmoy{at}partners.org

Lapatinib is an oral receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor, inhibiting both the ErbB-1 and ErbB-2 receptors. Lapatinib has been shown to have activity in ErbB-2–overexpressing breast cancer in several phase II and III clinical trials. Specifically, lapatinib is effective in patients with metastatic breast cancer, with inflammatory breast cancer, and possibly, with brain metastases. An ongoing clinical trial and another anticipated clinical trial will investigate lapatinib as adjuvant treatment in early-stage disease. Lapatinib has specific toxicities, the most common being diarrhea and rash. Cardiac toxicity is rarely seen with lapatinib. This paper reviews lapatinib-associated toxicities and provides practical management recommendations based on available data.

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest is found at the end of this article.

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