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. 2019 Oct;21(3):322-330.
doi: 10.22074/cellj.2019.6219. Epub 2019 Jun 15.

Relationship Study of The Verified H uman Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 Amplification with Other Tumor Markers and Clinicohistopathological Characteristics in Patients with Invasive Breast Cancer, Using Chromogenic In Situ Hybridization

Abdolazim Sarli  1 , Hossein Mozdarani  2 , Nasser Rakhshani  3 , Sohail Mozdarani  4
Affiliations

Relationship Study of The Verified H uman Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 Amplification with Other Tumor Markers and Clinicohistopathological Characteristics in Patients with Invasive Breast Cancer, Using Chromogenic In Situ Hybridization

Abdolazim Sarli et al. Cell J. 2019 Oct.

Abstract

Objective: Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2), as a crucial factor involved in about 20% of breast cancer cases, is one of the most reliable tumor markers to determine prognosis and therapeutic trend of this disease. This marker is generally assessed by immunohistochemistry (IHC) technique. In the cases that result of IHC test cast doubt (+2), the test should be repeated or validated by applying in situ hybridization techniques, like chromogenic in situ hybridization (CISH). In this regard, the goal of current study was to figure out the link between different clinicopathological characteristics of patients suffering from invasive breast cancer, using tumor markers, hormone receptor (HR) and HER-2. Comparing IHC and CISH techniques for evaluating diagnostic value and usefulness of HER-2 were also the other objective of this study.

Materials and methods: Based on this retrospective study, histological markers of 113 individuals suffering from invasive breast cancer -such as estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor, HER-2 receptor, E-cadherin, CK5/6, vimentin and Ki67 were examined by IHC technique. HER-2 amplification of all patients was also evaluated by CISH. Clinicopathological information of the patients was also extracted from medical documents and their associations with tumor markers were statistically evaluated.

Results: There is a significant relationship between tumor size, CK5/6 and tumor grade with HR status. Similar relationship was observed between HER-2 status and HR status, as well as vascular invasion (P<0.05). The comparison of HER-2 amplification showed no complete concordance of the result obtained from these two techniques, with score +3.

Conclusion: Since the status of HER-2 is very important in decision making of the treatment process, CISH technique is recommended in the malignant conditions as the primary test, instead of IHC. In this study, we also determined that HER-2 expression is greatly correlated with ER- and PR- status. This might propose a better prognosis for HER-2+ patients.

Keywords: Breast Cancer; Chromogenic In Situ Hybridization; HER-2; Tumor Markers.

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Conflict of interest statement

There is no conflict of interest in this study.

Figures

Fig.1
Fig.1
Illustration of a CISH result performed on the patient tumor sample. A. HER-2+ sample, whereby green-to-red ratio is more than 2 and B. HER-2- sample, whereby green-to-red ratio is less than 2 (red color is the indicator of chromosome 17 centromeric probes, and green color is the indicator of specified probes of HER-2 gene) (scale bar: 100 μm).
Fig.2
Fig.2
Comparison of two techniques, CISH and IHC, in HER-2 amplification detection. HER2 status is defined according to IHC in 3 states: +1 (HER2 negative) where the cell membranes are not stained or less than 10% of the cells are stained. +2 (Equivocal), in which the membrane contains more than 10% of the cells weakly or moderately stained and +3 (HER2 positive) in which the membrane of more than 10% of the cells is completely and severely stained.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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