Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P04626 (erbB-2)
 5,251 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

To investigate the possibility that the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor functions as an oncogene product, we have determined the levels of EGF receptor protein and RNA in a variety of malignant and normal human cells, using a specific polyclonal antibody to the EGF receptor and a cDNA clone (plasmid pE7) that encodes the EGF receptor, respectively. Besides A431 epidermoid carcinoma cells, which are known to make large amounts of EGF receptor, cell lines from two ovarian cancers, two cervical cancers, and one kidney cancer were found to contain substantial amounts of receptor protein (11-22% of A431). Normal human fibroblasts (Detroit 551), a human lymphocyte line (IM-9), and a leukemic lymphocyte line (CEM) contained low or undetectable levels of EGF receptor. RNA blot analysis showed that among the human cell lines examined the levels of a 10- and a 5.6-kilobase species of pE7-specific RNA generally correlated with the amount of the EGF receptor protein. Genomic DNA blot analysis revealed that except for A431 none of these cell lines expressing high levels of EGF receptor protein possessed amplified receptor gene sequences. A431 cells are known to secrete a truncated form of the EGF receptor. An abundant 2.9-kilobase RNA is found only in A431 cells; it could encode the truncated form of the EGF receptor.
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PMID:Characterization of epidermal growth factor receptor gene expression in malignant and normal human cell lines. 609 84

Minimal residual disease (MRD) evaluation in breast cancer patients is a promising tool to improve current staging procedures. In a previous work employing a CK-19-based reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technique for MRD detection, we identified a group of women who exhibited persistent negativity for this assay and for whom this technique was considered noninformative. In order to improve the yield of MRD detection in these patients, we evaluated the usefulness of RT-PCR detection of c-erbB-2 expression. We were able to detect up to 1 MCF-7 cell (positive for c-erbB-2 expression) in a mixture of 1,000,000 CCRF-CEM cells (negative for c-erbB-2 expression). We evaluated the specificity of this technique in the peripheral-blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of 20 healthy women and found that 2 of these women were positive for c-erbB-2 expression. In the PBMCs of a group of 16 women with breast cancer, 25% of the samples were positive for c-erbB-2 expression before chemotherapy. Except for race (P = 0.017), no other significant correlations were found, including c-erbB-2 expression in the primary tumor by immunoperoxidase. Interestingly, in the subgroup of 6 patients for whom this technique was informative, we found that 80% of the samples obtained while on chemotherapy were negative compared to only 10% obtained off treatment (P = 0.017). Additionally, 2 patients for whom CK-19 expression was noninformative had at least 1 c-erbB-2-positive sample. We conclude that this technique might be useful for MRD detection in breast cancer patients, but further studies are necessary to confirm our findings.
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PMID:Peripheral blood c-erbB-2 expression by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction in breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. 1219 78