Comparison of HER-2 status between primary breast cancer and corresponding distant metastatic sites
- 1 July 2002
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Elsevier BV in Annals of Oncology
- Vol. 13 (7), 1036-1043
- https://doi.org/10.1093/annonc/mdf252
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The humanized anti-HER-2 monoclonal antibody trastuzumab (Herceptin) is a new treatment modality for metastatic breast cancer, the efficacy of which is directly correlated with the HER-2 status of the tumour, evaluated either by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and/or by fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH). This analysis is generally performed on the primary tumour. There are few data regarding the HER-2 status in the corresponding distant metastases.METHODS: HER-2 status in 107 patients with a primary breast tumour and at least one distant metastatic lesion was analysed by IHC and FISH.RESULTS: We found similar levels of amplification (25% and 24%) and overexpression (13% and 19%) of HER-2 in primary and metastatic samples, respectively. Among paired primary/metastatic tumours, six (6%) showed discordance by HercepTest(TM) (n = 100): all six cases showed greater Her-2 overexpression in the metastatic tissue. By FISH (n = 68), five (7%) cases were discordant: two cases were amplified in the primary tumour but not in the metastasis, and three samples showed amplification in the metastasis but not in the primary. Finally, we analysed HER-2 status in different metastatic lesions from 17 patients that had at least two distant metastatic sites. Discordance between different sites from the same patient was 18% by IHC and 19% by FISH.CONCLUSIONS: Between the paired primary tumour and distant metastatic lesions, 94% and 93% of samples had concordant HER-2 status when analysed by IHC or FISH, respectively. These results do not support routine determination of HER-2 on metastatic sites, particularly when FISH results from the primary tumour are available.Keywords
This publication has 19 references indexed in Scilit:
- Use of Chemotherapy plus a Monoclonal Antibody against HER2 for Metastatic Breast Cancer That Overexpresses HER2New England Journal of Medicine, 2001
- Breast Cancer in the 21st Century: Neu Opportunities and Neu ChallengesLaboratory Investigation, 2001
- Breast cancer prevention: the next stepsEuropean Journal Of Cancer, 2000
- Genetic alterations in breast cancerGenes, Chromosomes and Cancer, 1995
- Clonal heterogeneity in breast cancer: Karyotypic comparisons of multiple intra—and extra—tumorous samples from 3 patientsInternational Journal of Cancer, 1995
- Chromosome analysis of 97 primary breast carcinomas: Identification of eight karyotypic subgroupsGenes, Chromosomes and Cancer, 1995
- Stability of HER-2/neu Expression Over Time and at Multiple Metastatic SitesJNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 1993
- Clonal chromosome abnormalities in human breast carcinomas II. Thirty‐four cases with metastatic diseaseGenes, Chromosomes and Cancer, 1993
- Tumor Cell SocietiesJNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 1989
- Human Breast Cancer: Correlation of Relapse and Survival with Amplification of the HER-2/ neu OncogeneScience, 1987