title: HER-2/neu oncogene expression and DNA ploidy analysis in breast cancer.
abstract: This study was performed to evaluate the correlation between HER-2/neu gene expression and DNA ploidy patterns. Forty-five cases of breast-cancer were analyzed. Immunohistochemical staining of HER-2/neu protein on frozen sections was used to detect the HER-2/neu protein, and the Feulgen DNA staining method was used to assess DNA amounts in the same tumor cells. Positive HER-2/neu overexpression was evaluated visually, and quantitation of the HER-2/neu protein was measured by image analysis. Twenty-two of the 45 cases were visually scored to be positive for the overexpression of the HER-2/neu protein, and these cases also contained above 10% HER-2/neu protein compared with a standard control cell line. All 22 of these cases had near-tetraploid DNA content. In contrast, cells, derived from the 23 cases that did not overexpress the HER-2/neu protein, contained DNA amounts that ranged from euploid (diploid) to varying degrees of aneuploid. The results of this study indicated that tumors that overexpress the HER-2/neu protein have tetraploid or near-tetraploid DNA content. This pattern could relate to the biological behavior of these tumors.
authors.affiliation: Cell Analysis Systems, Inc, Lombard, IL 60126-4944.
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Bacus
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Bacus
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Slamon
authors.forename: M F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Press
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics*; D002285:Carcinoma, Intraductal, Noninfiltrating / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D011003:Ploidies; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000032:analysis*; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases