Molecular Pharmacology Fast Forward. Published on January 25, 2013 as doi: 10.1124/mol. 112.082743

Lapatinib, a dual EGFR/HER2 kinase inhibitor, showed clinical benefits in advanced HER2-positive breast cancer patients. Because some triple-negative breast cancers (TNBCs) frequently overexpress EGFR, the anti-tumor activity of lapatinib in such diseases was also tested. However, the results showed a worse event-free survival rate. It remains unknown whether and how lapatinib elicits the aggressiveness of such cancer cells. In this study, our results demonstrated that lapatinib facilitated axillary and lung metastases of triple-negative