ERBB2 and breast cancer: More recently, one international (HERA) and two NCI-sponsored phase III clinical trials (NSABP B31 and NCCTG N9831), which have enrolled more than 6,000 patients, have shown that combining paclitaxel with trastuzumab after adjuvant chemotherapy significantly improved outcome among women with surgically removed HER-2 positive breast cancer [5,6].