Role of anti-Her-2 therapy in bladder carcinoma

Bladder cancer, in its advanced stage, has very few therapeutic strategies with proven efficacy. Platinum-combination chemotherapy can be considered a standard for first-line therapy, but after progression there is no standard therapy, and the prognosis is very poor. The development of targeted therapies in the last few years has significantly changed the prognosis of a wide variety of tumors. In bladder cancer, there is no targeted therapy currently approved for its use in advanced disease. There is evidence that Her-2 amplification and/or overexpression is seen in bladder cancer, and may influence prognosis. Anti-Her-2 drugs, such as trastuzumab or lapatinib, are under investigation in urothelial neoplasms, but there is no phase III trial that has evaluated their use in bladder cancer. We review the published evidence about Her-2 determination, its influence on bladder carcinoma prognosis, the clinical development of anti-Her-2-targeted therapies, and the possible future research directions involving this pathway in bladder cancer.