Enhertu is a combination of a chemotherapy drug and targeted therapy. This type of therapy differs from immunotherapy.

Doctors prescribe Enhertu for certain types of breast, lung, and other cancers in adults. In this article, you can learn more about Enhertu’s goals and how it works. You can also find out how it differs from immunotherapy.

Enhertu is a combination of a chemotherapy drug and targeted therapy. But it’s commonly called an antibody-drug conjugate, which means it contains a monoclonal antibody linked to a drug. A monoclonal antibody is a human-made protein that defends your body. It binds (attaches) to a specific part of a cancer cell.

Enhertu’s parts and active ingredients are:

  • An antibody (with the ingredient fam-trastuzumab): This part of the drug targets and attaches to human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) on cancer cells. (HER2 is a protein that may be found in higher amounts in some cancers.)
  • Chemotherapy (with the ingredient deruxtecan-nxki): This part of the drug hinders and helps destroy cancer cells.
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Chemotherapy is the use of any drug to treat a disease. Doctors may prescribe it as a treatment for cancer. The drugs used in chemotherapy (also called chemo) move throughout your body. Because of this, doctors often prescribe chemo for cancer that has metastasized (spread from its original location in your body to other parts of your body).

The goal of treatment with chemo is to cure the disease, if possible, or to control the disease by shrinking tumors and stopping the growth and spread of cancer. Chemo also provides palliation, which means it helps ease symptoms of cancer.

Immunotherapy is treatment that uses your immune system to fight a disease. Doctors may prescribe it to treat cancer. Immunotherapy stimulates your immune system, and with that boost, your immune system works to find and attack cancer cells. Sometimes this therapy uses human-made substances that work like your natural immune system to help provide that boost.

Various types of immunotherapy help treat cancer. Their goals vary somewhat, but all types generally help your immune system by identifying and attacking cancer cells. Each specific therapy has a unique way to accomplish this.

Doctors may prescribe other forms of treatment besides chemo and immunotherapy for some cancers.

Chemo and immunotherapy might be given the same way, depending on the therapy and the drug your doctor prescribes. You may receive chemo or immunotherapy in one of several ways, such as:

You receive Enhertu by IV infusion. You may receive other drugs along with it to help prevent side effects.

Doctors prescribe Enhertu to treat certain types of breast, lung, and other cancers in adults. For a doctor to prescribe Enhertu, the cancer must involve HER2 in some way. Each of these cancers also has other specific criteria for treatment with Enhertu, including prior treatments received.

In brief, the cancers are:

  • HER2-positive breast cancer
  • unresectable or metastatic HER2-low breast cancer
  • unresectable or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer with activating HER2 mutations (changes in HER2 that make the protein more active)
  • locally advanced or metastatic HER2-positive gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma
  • unresectable or metastatic HER2-positive solid tumors

“Unresectable” means the cancer cannot be removed with surgery. “Metastatic” means the cancer has spread from where it started to other parts of your body. “Locally advanced” means the cancer has grown beyond where it started but has not spread to other parts of your body.

Enhertu is a combination of a chemo drug and targeted therapy. This means it contains an antibody that targets and then attaches to a specific protein on cancer cells. It also contains a chemo drug to prevent and help destroy cancer cells.

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