Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Clinical Trial
. 2005 Jul 11;93(1):7-14.
doi: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6602660.

HER2 expression and efficacy of dose-dense anthracycline-containing adjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer patients

L Del Mastro  1 , P Bruzzi, G Nicolò, G Cavazzini, A Contu, M D'Amico, A Lavarello, F Testore, B Castagneto, E Aitini, L Perdelli, C Bighin, R Rosso, Marco Venturini
Affiliations
Clinical Trial

HER2 expression and efficacy of dose-dense anthracycline-containing adjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer patients

L Del Mastro et al. Br J Cancer. .

Abstract

No data are available on the role of HER2 overexpression in predicting the efficacy of dose-dense anthracycline-containing adjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer patients. We retrospectively evaluated this role in patients enrolled in a phase III study comparing standard FEC21 (5-fluorouracil, epirubicin, and cyclophosphamide, administered every 3 weeks) vs dose-dense FEC14 (the same regimen repeated every 2 weeks). HER2 status was determined for 731 of 1214 patients. Statistical analyses were performed to test for interaction between treatment and HER2 status with respect to event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS); EFS and OS were compared within each HER2 subgroup and within each treatment arm. Median follow-up was 6.7 years. Among FEC21-treated patients, both EFS (HR=2.07; 95% CI 1.27-3.38) and OS (HR=2.47; 95% CI 1.34-4.57) were significantly worse in HER2 + patients than in HER2 - patients. Among FEC14-treated patients, differences in either EFS (HR=1.21; 95% CI 0.65-2.24) or OS (HR=1.85; 95% CI 0.88-3.89) between HER2 + and HER2 - patients were not statistically significant. Interaction analysis suggested that the use of dose-dense FEC14 might remove the negative prognostic effect of HER2 overexpression on EFS and OS. Our data suggest a potential role of HER-2 overexpression in predicting the efficacy of dose-dense epirubicin-containing chemotherapy and the need to confirm this hypothesis in future prospective studies.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Event-free survival (A) and OS (B) curves of HER2-positive (HER2 +) vs HER2-negative (HER2 −) patients.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Event-free survival and OS curves of HER2-positive (HER2 +) vs HER2-negative (HER2 −) patients according to FEC21 (A–C) or dose-dense FEC14 (B–D) treatment.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Event-free survival (A, B) and OS (C–D) curves of FEC21-treated patients vs dose-dense FEC14-treated patients according to HER2 status.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Borg A, Baldetorp B, Ferno M, Killander D, Olsson H, Sigurdsson H (1991) ERBB2 amplification in breast cancer with a high rate of proliferation. Oncogene 6: 137–143 - PubMed
    1. Citron CL, Berry DA, Cirrincione C, Hudis C, Winer EO, Gradishar MJ, Davidson NE, Martino S, Livingstone R, Ingle JN, Perez EA, Carpenter J, Hurd D, Holland JF, Smith BL, Sartor CI, Leung EH, Abrams J, Schilsky RL, Muss HB, Norton I (2003) Randomized trial of dose-dense vs conventionally scheduled and sequential vs concurrent combination chemotherapy as postoperative adjuvant treatment of node-positive primary breast cancer: first report of Intergroup trial C9741/Cancer and Leukemia Group B Trial 9741. J Clin Oncol 21: 1431–1439 - PubMed
    1. Di Leo A, Gancberg D, Larsimont D, Tanner M, Jarvinen T, Rouas G, Dolci S, Leroy JY, Paesmans M, Isola J, Piccart MJ (2002) HER-2 amplification and topoisomerase IIalpha gene aberrations as predictive markers in node-positive breast cancer patients randomly treated either with an anthracycline-based therapy or with cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and 5-fluorouracil. Clin Cancer Res 8: 1107–1116 - PubMed
    1. Goldhirsch A, Wood WC, Gelber RD, Coates AS, Thurlimann B, Senn HJ (2003) Meeting Highlights: updated international export consensus on the primary therapy of early breast cancer. J Clin Oncol 21: 3357–3365 - PubMed
    1. Paik S, Bryant J, Park C, Fisher B, Tan-Chiu E, Hyams D, Fisher ER, Lippman ME, Wickerham DL, Wolmark N (1998) ErbB-2 and response to doxorubicin in patients with axillary lymph node-positive, hormone receptor-negative breast cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst 90: 1361–1370 - PubMed

Publication types