Infusion of trastuzumab maintenance doses over 30 minutes.

The humanized monoclonal antibody trastuzumab is licensed for both the adjuvant treatment of early breast cancer and the palliation of metastatic breast cancer [1]. In the UK, trastuzumab is usually administered on a three weekly schedule. According to the license, it is infused over a period of 90 min and the patient is observed for 4.5 h after the loading dose, and for 30 min after all subsequent maintenance infusions. Prolonged infusion times have been justified by the risk of infusion reactions, with 54% of patients having at least one symptom with their first infusion, usually pyrexia, headache or rigors [2]. Infusion reactions are much less common with maintenance doses, particularly when premedication with steroids or antihistamines is used, and severe reactions to infusions are very rare [2, 3]. On this basis, therefore, some