Question

Given what you know about cetuximab and panitumumab are, what do you think trastuzumab and pertuzumab are?

Answer 1

Cetuximab and Panitumumab are drugs used to treat metastatic colorectal cancer.cetuximab is a chimeric monoclonal antibody whereas panitumumab is a fully human monoclonal antibody.

similarly transtuzumab and pertuzumab are targeted therapies to treat breast cancer.These drugs are usually given with chemotherapy .Both of them work by targeting specific proteins (receptors). Some cancers have too much of a protein called Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) on the surface of their cells.These are called HER2 positive cancers . The extra HER2 receptors stimulate the cancer cells to divide and grow.

Pertuzumab and Transtuzumab work by locking onto the HER2 proteins. Each drug locks onto a different part of the protein .This blocks the receptors and stops the cells dividing and growing . Pertzumab and Transtuzumab work in people who have cancer with high levels of HER2.

Pertuzumab is a fully humanized monoclonal antibody which binds to the domain II of HER2 whereas Transtuzumab binds to the domain IV.

Pertuzumab efficiently inhibits ligand induce HER2/HER3 dimerization whereas Transtuzumab has minor effect in the presence of a ligand.