Fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan
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A HER2-targeting antibody carrying a potent DNA-damaging chemotherapy payload that's released once the antibody enters a cancer cell, with enough payload leaking out to also reach neighboring tumor cells that carry little or no HER2 themselves.
How it works
This drug is really two medicines fused into one. The first part is the same targeting antibody used in other HER2 drugs; it finds and clings to HER2, a protein some cancer cells carry in unusually high amounts. Once it locks on, the cancer cell swallows the whole drug, and inside the cell it releases a potent chemotherapy payload that damages the cell's DNA until it dies. That payload doesn't have to stay put — it can also reach a short distance into neighboring cancer cells that don't carry much HER2 of their own, which is part of why this drug works even against tumors other HER2-targeted drugs would consider too low in HER2 to hit.
What it’s used for
Approved to treat several HER2-related cancers. In breast cancer, it's used both before and after surgery for early-stage HER2-positive disease, as an initial treatment (paired with another HER2 drug) for cancer that has spread, and on its own for breast cancer that keeps growing after other HER2 treatments — including cancers that carry only small amounts of HER2, a group that previously had few targeted options. It's also approved for certain lung cancers driven by a specific HER2 gene mutation, for stomach and gastroesophageal junction cancers that overexpress HER2 after prior trastuzumab treatment, and more broadly for other HER2-positive solid tumors that have run out of other options.
- Mechanism
- HER2-targeted antibody-drug conjugate
- Drug class
- Antibody-drug conjugate
- Therapeutic area
- Oncology