Herzuma (Trastuzumab-Pkrb) for Breast Cancer

Overview
Herzuma is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of HER2-overexpressing breast cancer. It is prescribed for people with both early-stage and metastatic (cancer that has spread) HER2-positive breast cancer. Herzuma is a biosimilar to Herceptin (trastuzumab), which means it is highly similar to the FDA-approved reference product with no clinically meaningful differences in terms of safety, purity, and potency. Herzuma is also known by its drug name, trastuzumab-pkrb.

Herzuma belongs to a class of drugs called HER2/neu receptor antagonists. It works by binding to the HER2 protein on cancer cells, which inhibits their growth and survival.

How do I take it?
Prescribing information states that Herzuma is administered as an intravenous (IV) infusion. For early-stage breast cancer, the initial dosing is administered over a 90-minute IV infusion, followed by 30-minute weekly IV infusions for 12 or 18 weeks. After this period, a dose is administered every three weeks for a total of 52 weeks. For metastatic breast cancer, the initial dose is administered as a 90-minute IV infusion, followed by weekly 30-minute IV infusions. Herzuma should be taken exactly as prescribed by a health care provider.

Side effects
Common side effects of Herzuma include headache, diarrhea, nausea, and chills for adjuvant breast cancer. For metastatic breast cancer, common side effects include fever, chills, headache, infection, congestive heart failure, insomnia, cough, and rash.

Rare but serious side effects may include cardiomyopathy (heart muscle disease), infusion reactions, embryo-fetal toxicity (harm to an unborn baby), pulmonary toxicity (lung damage), and worsening of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia (low white blood cell count).

For more information about this treatment, visit:

Label: Herzuma — Trastuzumab Kit — DailyMed

Herzuma — Drugs.com