The aim of our study is to assess the relation of
human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 or HER2/neu with the development of salivary gland
carcinomas and use of
Herceptin in the treatment of these
cancers. A literature search was conducted using MEDLINE accessed via the National Library of Medicine PubMed interface searching for articles from 1994 up to 2014 relating to the existence of HER-2
protein and gene in salivary gland
carcinomas and HER2/neu targeted
therapy, written in English language. Almost all the studies in literature reported a frequent over expression and amplification of HER2/nue in salivary duct
carcinomas (SDC) compared to other
salivary gland cancers.
Herceptin given as a monotherapy was not effective. The data on
Herceptin combined
chemotherapy are potentially promising but inadequate to evaluate
drug activity, as patients also received a variety of
cytotoxic agents. Therefore,
Herceptin contribution to tumour response outcomes could not be precisely determined and the total number of cases is not sufficient. It is recommended that further work involves a large series of HER2/neu positive
salivary gland cancers (randomized control trial) treated with
chemotherapy with and without
Herceptin. This might need multi-institutional cooperation.