Which statement best describes Herceptin’s coding from pre-2013 to post-2013?

Herceptin, known generically as trastuzumab, is a targeted therapy used primarily for treating HER2-positive breast cancer. The coding for Herceptin changed with the advance in our understanding of its mechanism of action and its classification in the treatment regimen.

Prior to 2013, Herceptin was primarily categorized within the realm of chemotherapy treatments due to its administration alongside chemotherapeutic agents and the traditional view of cancer treatment. However, as knowledge and clinical practice evolved, Herceptin began to be recognized more accurately as an immunotherapy. This change reflects a broader classification scheme moving towards understanding targeted therapies and biologics, leading to the coding of Herceptin as immunotherapy after 2013.

This shift in coding reflects the growing recognition of the differences between standard chemotherapy agents and those that specifically target the immune system or cancer markers, like the HER2 receptor targeted by Herceptin. Therefore, the accurate coding for Herceptin is that it was coded as chemotherapy before 2013 and is coded as immunotherapy after 2013, making this the correct summary of its classification trajectory.