HER2-Positive Circulating Tumor Cells Indicate Poor Clinical Outcome in Stage I to III Breast Cancer Patients

Abstract

Purpose: Early metastasis in node-negative breast cancer indicates that breast cancer cells obviously can bypass the lymph nodes and disseminate directly hematogenous to distant organs. For this purpose, we evaluated the prognostic value of blood-borne, HER2-positive circulating tumor cells (CTC) in the peripheral blood from 42 breast cancer patients with a median follow-up of 95 months.