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Categorization, risk assessment, and treatment of breast cancer have been revolutionized by the original description of the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), first as a prognostic marker and then as a therapeutic target. The HER2-positive subtype of breast cancer represents less than approximately 20% of the incident breast cancers. Nevertheless, many lessons can be learned from the development of anti-HER2 therapies in early-stage disease. This review will comment on the key studies in both the (neo)adjuvant and metastatic settings and discusses some of the controversies that still remain today both in clinical care and as research questions.

Breast-conserving surgery combined with radiotherapy has become the treatment of choice for the majority of women presenting with primary breast cancer over the last 20 years. The extent of local e

Currently, no precise morphologic or biologic prognostic factors reliably identify patients with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) who are at high risk of disease progression. DCIS is a disease with an extremely favorable prognosis and a small likelihood of dying from breast cancer, regardless of what type of treatment is received. No retrospective or prospective study to date has demonstrated a significant difference in breast cancer specific mortality regardless of treatment. The similarities between DCIS and invasive cancer suggest that an important area for future research should be elucidating the processes that can either unleash or contain the invasive potential of DCIS cells. Thus, an understanding of the biology of DCIS can assist in the prevention, the assessment, and the diagnosis of invasive breast cancer.