HER2-Low Breast Cancer: Incidence, Clinicopathologic Features, and Survival Outcomes From Real-World Data of a Large Nationwide Cohort.

ABSTRACT

Patients with breast cancer (BC) with low levels of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) expression (HER2-low) could benefit from novel antibody-drug conjugates. However, there is conflicting information regarding the characteristics of HER2-low BC and its outcome. We assessed the clinicopathologic characteristics and outcomes of HER2-low BC using real-world data from the Dutch National Pathology Registry. This retrospective study incorporated all patients with primary invasive BC, without neoadjuvant therapy, reported in the Dutch National Pathology Registry synoptic reporting module between 2014 and 2022. HER2 status was categorized as HER2-0 (defined as an immunohistochemistry score of 0 according to the current American Society of Clinical Oncology/College of American Pathologists guidelines) or HER2-low (immunohistochemistry score 1+ or 2+ without amplification). Clinicopathologic characteristics and overall survival of HER2-low BC were compared with HER2-0, adjusted for estrogen receptor (ER) status. We included 65,035 patients with BC, resulting in 69,424 tumors. The proportion of HER2-low BC was 62% in the ER+ cohort and 38% in the ER- cohort. A substantial number of patients had a different HER2 category between the needle biopsy and the corresponding surgical resection (28%) or among multiple tumors (28%). After multivariable logistic analysis, HER2-low tumors were significantly associated with histologic subtype, a higher ER, and lower progesterone receptor expression in the ER+ cohort, whereas within the ER-cohort, HER2-low tumors were associated with a lower tumor grade. However, the absolute differences were limited, and there was no significant difference in overall survival between HER2-low and HER2-0 tumors within the ER+ or ER- cohort. The classification of HER2 expression (HER2-0 vs HER2-low) varies between biopsies and corresponding resection specimens and within multiple tumors in the same patient, which could affect clinical decision making in case only HER2-low cases are eligible for novel HER2-targeting agents. The limited follow-up time and the lack of substantial clinicopathologic differences between HER2-low and HER2-0-cases could explain the lack of differences in overall survival.