WEDNESDAY, Feb. 12, 2003 (HealthDayNews) -- The 3-D structure of a receptor that goes awry in some breast cancers has been identified by American scientists.
Researchers from Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions and the biotechnology company Genitope also determined how this receptor, called HER2, interacts with an antibody (Herceptin) that's commonly used to treat women with breast cancer. The study appears in the Feb. 13 issue of Nature.
The research provides exact information about which building blocks of the Herceptin antibody interact with specific building blocks of the HER2 receptor. That knowledge may help scientists develop better drugs to treat breast cancer.
Herceptin received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval as a breast cancer treatment in 1998. Herceptin kills cancer cells carrying excess HER2, but it wasn't clear until now precisely how Herceptin interacted with HER2.
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