HER2/neu: an increasingly important therapeutic target. Part 1: basic biology & therapeutic armamentarium

This is the first of a comprehensive three-part review of the foundation for and therapeutic targeting of HER2/neu. No biological molecule in oncology has been more extensively or more successfully targeted than HER2/neu. This review will summarize the pertinent biology of HER2/neu and the EGF receptor family to which it belongs, with attention to the biological foundation for the design and clinical development of the entire range of HER2/neu-targeted therapies, including efforts to mitigate resistance mechanisms. In conjunction with the subsequent two parts (HER2/neu tissue expression and current HER2/neu-targeted therapeutics), this comprehensive survey will identify opportunities and promising areas for future evaluation of HER2/neu-targeted therapies, highlighting the importance of HER2/neu as an increasingly important therapeutic target.