title: Association of elevated expression of the c-erbB-2 protein with spread of breast cancer.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, University of Tokyo.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yoshimoto
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Murayama
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ebuchi
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mori
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sugano
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Toyoshima
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases