Herceptin and the Heart — A Molecular Modifier of Cardiac Failure

Translation, translation, translation. Around the halls of academic medicine, translation is the mantra of the moment. In the literary world, translation is the process of interpreting an extant body of written work and converting it into a new language. In the scientific world, translation is the application of fundamental discoveries in basic science to clinical medicine, with the goal of developing new treatments for debilitating diseases.In this arena, the development of a humanized monoclonal antibody against the HER2 protein (trastuzumab, or Herceptin) as adjuvant therapy for early HER2-positive breast cancer ranks as one of the most satisfying and powerful . . .