Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UNIPROT:O76050 (neu)
 3,969 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

One of the prognostic and predictive factors in invasive breast carcinomas is determination of the HER2/neu proto-oncogene amplification or HER2 protein overexpression. HER2 amplification/overexpression is associated with a more aggressive disease course, greater likelihood of recurrence and generally poor prognosis. The authors compared the specificity, simplicity of a given procedure and method standardization, the simplicity of evaluation the results of each in situ hybridization method and time needed for performing the test. Sixty-three cases of infiltrating breast carcinoma from surgically excised tumors and core needle biopsies were included in the study. The first step was the determination of HER2 status by immunohistochemistry. The patients with moderate (2+) and strong (3+) overexpression of HER2 protein were chosen for determining HER2 amplification by three methods of in situ hybridization: FISH, CISH and in situ hybridization with silver autometallography. The statistical analysis revealed a good agreement between IHC and ISH methods and among ISH methods. The results indicate that all in situ hybridization methods are equivalent tools for evaluating HER2 gene amplification in archival material. There is no clear answer which method is the best assay to determine HER2 marker status, although the authors present some advantages and disadvantages of all the described techniques and a proposed algorithm for choosing a method for a given laboratory.
 ...
PMID:Evaluation of HER2/neu gene amplification in patients with invasive breast carcinoma. Comparison of in situ hybridization methods. 1758 41

Determining ErbB2/Her-2/neu status has become an essential part of breast cancer diagnosis and a prerequisite before considering a patient's eligibility for treatment with trastuzumab. Currently the most common techniques to assess ErbB2 status in routine practice are the identification of receptor overexpression by means of immunohistochemistry (IHC) and the analysis of gene amplification by means of dual color fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH). According to recent recommendations ("ASCO/CAP Guidelines" and German S3 guidelines for breast cancer) the choice of primary test procedure--IHC or ISH - is left to the individual institution. Both techniques are of equal predictive value provided that strict quality precautions have been taken: internal test validation by comparing IHC and (F)ISH, carrying out controls, and annual participation in round-robin tests. Equivocal IHC (score 2+) has to be checked by ISH for amplification. Borderline ISH (ratio 1.8-2.2 or gene copy number 4.0-6.0) should be retested by counting additional cells or performing IHC. In approximately 5% of cases these criteria give conflicting results and the gene copy number alone generates over 90% of the equivocal ISH cases, mostly due to chromosome 17 polysomy. These cases need to be tested by IHC since over-expression is very exceptional and only these tumors have the potential to be trastuzumab responders.
 ...
PMID:[ErbB2 diagnostics in breast cancer--an update]. 1921 13