• Pharmacists Center

    The Pharmacists Center features helpful resources, links, and tools supporting healthcare provider and patient education as well as useful information for practicing oncology pharmacists. Pharmacists Center

  • Nurses Center

    The Nurses Center features helpful resources, links, and tools supporting nurse and patient education as well as the practice of oncology nursing. Nurses Center

  • Fellows Center

    The Fellows Center features helpful resources, links, and tools supporting oncology fellows' education and current clinical practice. Fellows Center

HER signaling: targeting a critical receptor family

Human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER) pathways play a critical role in cancer biology and are an area of intense research at Genentech, a member of the Roche Group. Dysregulation of HER-mediated signaling pathways results in the growth and spread of cancer cells.1 The HER family consists of 4 structurally related receptors: HER1 (EGFR), HER2, HER3, and HER4.1,2 Normally, these receptors become primed for activation by the presence of ligands, such as growth factors.

Additional Resources on this Topic:

HER Signaling

Pertuzumab

References

Animation

view video HER Signaling animation

Link to More Information

ResearchHERPathways.com


HER family receptors are activated by ligand-induced dimerization, or receptor pairing.3 Dimerization is a critical step in HER family–mediated signaling, and HER receptors are able to homodimerize or heterodimerize with other HER family members, allowing for multiple receptor combinations.1,4

The formation of dimers leads to intracellular phosphorylation that provides docking sites for a variety of molecules. These molecules then relay signals to different downstream cascades, including the MAPK proliferation pathway and the PI3K/Akt prosurvival pathway-2 pathways frequently overactivated in cancer.1,4-7

Inappropriate signaling may occur as a result of receptor overexpression or dysregulation of receptor activation, which may lead to8-10

  • Increased/uncontrolled cell proliferation

  • Resistance to apoptosis (programmed cell death)

  • Enhanced cancer cell motility

  • Angiogenesis

Next: Pertuzumab