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
Review
. 2022 Sep 9;12(9):1403.
doi: 10.3390/life12091403.

HER2 in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer: Pathology, Somatic Alterations, and Perspectives for Novel Therapeutic Schemes

Mariia Ivanova  1 , Konstantinos Venetis  1 , Elena Guerini-Rocco  1 , Luca Bottiglieri  1 , Mauro Giuseppe Mastropasqua  2 , Ornella Garrone  3 , Nicola Fusco  1 , Michele Ghidini  3
Affiliations
Review

HER2 in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer: Pathology, Somatic Alterations, and Perspectives for Novel Therapeutic Schemes

Mariia Ivanova et al. Life (Basel). .

Abstract

HER2 is an emerging biomarker in colorectal cancer (CRC). This oncogene plays an essential role in regulating cell proliferation, differentiation, migration, and, more in general, tumorigenesis and tumor progression. The most frequent types of HER2 alterations in CRC include gene amplification and missense mutations in 7-8% of CRC, often being mirrored by HER2 protein overexpression, representing founder events in solid tumors, including CRC. There are currently no approved HER2-targeted therapy guidelines for CRC; however, several studies have shown that HER2 can be effectively targeted in meta-static CRC settings. In this review, we discuss the current knowledge of HER2 testing in CRC and the immediate future perspectives for HER2 targeting in the metastatic setting.

Keywords: HER2; biomarkers; colorectal cancer; pathology; targeted therapy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Frequency and types of HER2 alterations in 636 patients with colorectal cancer from the TGCA Firehose Legacy series from https://www.cbioportal.org/, accessed on 11 August 2022.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Lollipop plot showing the frequency of HER2 missense mutations in 16 patients with HER2-mutated colorectal cancer from the TGCA Firehose Legacy series from https://www.cbioportal.org/, accessed on 11 August 2022.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Recurrent genomic alterations in colorectal carcinomas with HER2 alterations. Oncoprint visualization of the most frequently mutated cancer genes in colorectal carcinomas harboring HER2 amplification, mutations, or both types of alterations. TGCA Firehose Legacy series (16 samples) from https://www.cbioportal.org/, accessed on 11 August 2022.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Gaye E., Penel N., Lebellec L. Novel treatment approaches for HER2 positive solid tumors (excluding breast cancer) Curr. Opin. Oncol. 2022;34:570–574. doi: 10.1097/CCO.0000000000000873. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Roy-Chowdhuri S., Davies K.D., Ritterhouse L.L., Snow A.N. ERBB2 (HER2) Alterations in Colorectal Cancer. J. Mol. Diagn. 2022 doi: 10.1016/j.jmoldx.2022.07.001. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wang H., Miao J., Wen Y., Xia X., Chen Y., Huang M., Chen S., Zhao Z., Zhang Y., Chen C., et al. Molecular Landscape of ERBB2 Alterations in 14,956 Solid Tumors. Pathol. Oncol. Res. POR. 2022;28:1610360. doi: 10.3389/pore.2022.1610360. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Oh D.-Y., Bang Y.-J. HER2-targeted therapies—A role beyond breast cancer. Nat. Rev. Clin. Oncol. 2020;17:33–48. doi: 10.1038/s41571-019-0268-3. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Vranić S., Bešlija S., Gatalica Z. Targeting HER2 expression in cancer: New drugs and new indications. Bosn. J. Basic Med. Sci. 2021;21:1–4. doi: 10.17305/bjbms.2020.4908. - DOI - PMC - PubMed