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Background In five randomized clinical trials (RCTs), adjuvant trastuzumab (T) for early stage breast cancer with human epidermal growth-factor receptor-2 over-expression/gene-amplification has shown to decrease the risk of both recurrence and death. The issue regarding the long-term safety profile of such drug is still open; in particular, questions remain about long-term cardiotoxicity, and specific patterns of relapse such as brain metastases (BM). In order to quantify the magnitude of these two risks, and then balance those with the survival outcome, a literature-based meta-analysis was performed. Methods All phase III trials were considered eligible. A literature-based meta-analysis was accomplished, and event-based relative risk ratios with 95% confidence interval were derived. A fixed- and a random-effect model according to the inverse variance and the Mantel–Haenzel method were …