Dr. Howard A. Burris, III, on Modern Chemotherapy for Patients with HER2-Positive Breast Cancer

Howard A. “Skip” Burris, III, MD, president, Clinical Operations, chief medical officer and executive director of Drug Development, Sarah Cannon, talks about chemotherapy in the era of personalized medicine. Burris says one way chemotherapy can be utilized now is through antibody drug conjugates (ADCs), which are monoclonal antibodies that in this case are linked to chemotherapy in order to better target cancer cells.

Burris adds that the hallmark drug for this type of treatment was trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1), which has proven successful for HER2-positive breast cancer. Burris says that he hopes this is the start of a new era where patients can receiver safer, kinder chemotherapy.