Durable remission in a patient with ERBB2-amplified recurrent mucinous ovarian carcinoma treated with Trastuzumab-Carboplatin-Paclitaxel

Abstract

Patients with advanced stage or recurrent mucinous ovarian carcinoma exhibit poor response to standard platinum- and taxane-based chemotherapy and poor prognosis. We report a 29-year-old patient with recurrent ERBB2-amplified mucinous ovarian carcinoma (with expansile growth pattern at initial diagnosis and previously treated with adjuvant capecitabine/oxaliplatin) who underwent optimal secondary cytoreduction followed by 6 cycles of carboplatin/paclitaxel/trastuzumab and 1-year maintenance trastuzumab. This patient remains without radiologic or biochemical evidence of disease for more than 3 years after secondary cytoreduction. This case supports routine assessment of HER2 status in patients with advanced or recurrent mucinous ovarian carcinoma and highlights the potential of HER2-targeted therapy with trastuzumab in combination with standard carboplatin and paclitaxel in this disease. This case also raises the possibility that expansile mucinous ovarian carcinomas with ERBB2 amplification and p53 mutant immunohistochemical staining pattern (as this patient had) may be associated with a more aggressive behavior and higher risk of relapse.

Keywords

• Mucinous ovarian cancer
• HER2
• ERBB2
• Trastuzumab
• Carboplatin/Paclitaxel chemotherapy
• Expansile growth