Development of antibody drugs targeting against HER2 for cancer therapy

Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) belongs to the transmembrane glycoprotein receptor family.  Overexpression of HER2 could directly lead to tumorigenesis and metastasis.  This phenomenon could be observed in the breast cancer, ovarian cancer, gastric cancer, lung cancer and prostate cancer.  Compared with the conventional chemotherapy, the targeted treatment of antibody is more specific and has lower side effects.  This review describes the current status of monotherapy and combination therapies of anti-HER2 antibodies, trastuzumab and pertuzumab, with chemotherapeutic drugs.  The development trends of new formats of anti-HER2 antibody drugs such as bispecific antibody, immunotoxin are also discussed.