Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 status correlates with lymph node involvement in patients with estrogen receptor (ER) negative, but with grade in those with ER-positive early-stage breast cancer suitable for cytotoxic chemotherapy

Bartlett, John M. S., Ellis, Ian O., Dowsett, Mitch, Mallon, Elizabeth A., Cameron, David A., Johnston, Stephen, Hall, Emma, A'Hern, Roger, Peckitt, Clare, Bliss, Judith M., Johnson, Lindsay, Barrett-Lee, Peter and Ellis, Paul 2007. Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 status correlates with lymph node involvement in patients with estrogen receptor (ER) negative, but with grade in those with ER-positive early-stage breast cancer suitable for cytotoxic chemotherapy. Journal of Clinical Oncology 25 (28) , pp. 4423-4430. 10.1200/JCO.2007.11.0973

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

Purpose Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2) expression is associated with increased risk of high-grade disease, nodal metastasis, and absence of estrogen receptors (ERs) in early breast cancer. We tested interactions between ER and HER-2 to determine if they may modulate breast cancer nodal metastasis and proliferation. Patients and Methods Tumors from the Cancer Research UK Taxotere as Adjuvant Chemotherapy phase III trial were tested for HER-2 using current diagnostic procedures. ER status, progesterone status, clinicopathologic characteristics, and patient age were included in a logistic regression analysis to identify associations with HER-2 status (positive v negative). Results A total of 841 (23.6%) of 3,565 samples were HER-2 positive (3+ by immunohistochemistry or positive by fluorescent in situ hybridization). ER-negative tumors were more likely to be HER-2 positive than were ER-positive tumors (odds ratio [OR] = 1.87, ER negative v ER positive; P < .001). For ER-positive tumors, risk of HER-2 positivity increased by grade (OR = 7.6, grade 3 v grade 1; P < .001) but not nodal status (OR = 1.3, four or more positive nodes v node negative; P = .08). Conversely, ER negative node-positive tumors were markedly more frequently HER-2 positive than node-negative cases (OR = 3.05, four or more positive nodes v node negative; P < .001) but independent of grade (OR = 0.82, grade 3 v grade 1; P = .76). Conclusion In early breast cancer patients selected for cytotoxic chemotherapy, we identified significant interactions between HER-2 and ER expression that correlate with tumor pathology. In ER-positive breast cancers, HER-2 expression correlates with grade, not nodal metastasis. In ER-negative breast cancers, HER-2 expression correlates with increased nodal positivity, not grade. ER and HER-2 expression may modify tumor pathology via ER/HER-2–mediated cross talk.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Medicine
Subjects:	R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC0254 Neoplasms. Tumors. Oncology (including Cancer)
Publisher:	Grune and Stratton
ISSN:	0732-183X
Last Modified:	10 Oct 2017 14:44
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/38164

Citation Data

Cited 66 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item