Association of elevated expression of the c-erbB-2 protein with spread of breast cancer.
We analyzed amplification and expression of the c-erbB-2 gene in human breast cancers. Southern blot hybridization analysis demonstrated amplification of the c-erbB-2 gene in 10 out of 50 tumor DNAs examined. The degree of amplification was three- to twenty-fold relative to normal placenta. The c-erbB-2 protein could be analyzed in 39 tumor tissues of the 50 samples by immuno-blotting, and elevated expression of the c-erbB-2 protein was found in 15 cases. On the other hand, expression of the c-erbB-2 products was not detected in normal breast tissues either by immuno-blotting or by immuno-histological analysis. These data indicate that transcriptional and/or translational activation of c-erbB-2 might occur in some breast cancers in addition to activation by gene amplification. The elevated expression of the c-erbB-2 protein was most strongly correlated with lymph-node metastasis (P less than 0.001), suggesting that c-erbB-2 expression is involved in promotion of the lymph-node metastasis of human breast cancers. Therefore, immuno-histological diagnosis with anti-c-erbB-2 antibody might be useful as an indicator to predict lymph-node involvement in breast cancer.
Yamada
Y
Y
Department of Oncology, University of Tokyo.
Yoshimoto
M
M
Murayama
Y
Y
Ebuchi
M
M
Mori
S
S
Yamamoto
T
T
Sugano
H
H
Toyoshima
K
K
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D002293:Adenocarcinoma, Scirrhous / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D005784:Gene Amplification / Q000235:genetics*; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D015151:Immunoblotting; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases
D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases