The identification of a small but significant subset of patients still targetable with anti-HER2 inhibitors when affected by triple negative breast carcinoma.
J Cancer Res Clin Oncol
; 139(9): 1563-8, 2013 Sep.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-23892410
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE:
Triple (ER-, PR-, HER2-) negative breast carcinoma lack targeted therapies, making this group of tumors difficult to treat. By definition, the lack of HER2 expression means a case scoring 0 or 1+ after immunophenotypical analysis and makes the patients avoiding therapeutical chances with anti-HER2 inhibitors. We sought to recruit from a group of triple negative breast carcinoma, patients eligible for effective personalized targeted therapy with anti-HER therapies on the basis of their HER2 gene status.METHODS:
135 patients diagnosed with IHC triple negative breast carcinoma were studied. Whole tissue sections were used for in situ hybridization analysis.RESULTS:
8/100 (8 %) of ductal-type triple negative breast carcinoma presented Her-2/neu gene amplification versus 2/35 (5.7 %) non-ductal triple negative breast carcinoma. Three cases showed a ratio 2.5. One case showed Her-2/neu heterogeneous gene amplification, ratio 2.3. The other six showed from 7 to 8 absolute Her-2/neu gene copy number. Two cases staged pT1c, and eight cases staged pT2. Eight cases graded G3 and two cases G2.CONCLUSION:
(1) Eight percentage of ductal and 5.7 % non-ductal-type triple negative breast carcinoma present Her-2/neu gene amplification, (2) the standard diagnostic flowchart "do not FISH in 0-1+ (HER2-) breast carcinoma" should be replaced by "do FISH in triple (ER-, PR-, HER2-) negative breast carcinoma," to avoid loss of therapeutical chances in a cohort of such a patients, (3) we demonstrated the identification of a small but significant subset of patients targetable with anti-HER2 inhibitors, giving patients affected by (ex)triple negative breast carcinoma new personalized therapeutical chances.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Breast Neoplasms
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Carcinoma, Squamous Cell
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Receptors, Progesterone
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Receptors, Estrogen
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Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast
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Receptor, ErbB-2
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Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized
Type of study:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Etiology_studies
/
Incidence_studies
/
Observational_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Adult
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Aged
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Aged80
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Female
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Humans
/
Middle aged
Language:
En
Journal:
J Cancer Res Clin Oncol
Year:
2013
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Italy