Prognostic association of c-erbB-2 oncogene amplification and protein overexpression in human breast cancer using archival tissues. A comparative study.
The prognostic associations of c-erbB-2 gene amplification analysed by dot-blot hybridization and of c-erbB-2 protein overexpression assessed by immunohistochemistry (IHC) were compared in 161 patients with operable breast cancer using formalin fixed paraffin embedded archival tissues. The efficiency of the dot-blot technique to detect c-erbB-2 amplification was first validated by comparing the results of dot-blot with those of Southern blot hybridization in 134 tumour samples and there was an excellent correlation. In the main series of 161 samples, where results of IHC and dot-blot were compared, 35.4% showed c-erbB-2 overexpression and 17.4% showed gene amplification. Tumours showing overexpression of c-erbB-2 protein had a significantly shorter disease-free survival (DSF) and survival(s) compared to tumours showing no overexpression. A multivariate analysis revealed that c-erbB-2 overexpression was independently correlated with poor prognosis. On the other hand, no significant association between c-erbB-2 gene amplification and DFS or S was observed. We conclude that c-erbB-2 protein overexpression assessed by IHC is a superior prognostic indicator in operable breast cancer compared to c-erbB-2 gene amplification analysed by the dot-blot technique.
Bandyopadhyay
D
D
Department of Laboratory Medicine, Tata Memorial Hospital, Bombay, India.
Redkar
A
A
Bharde
S
S
Dani
H
H
Sampat
M
M
Mittra
I
I
D015139:Blotting, Southern; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D005784:Gene Amplification; D015870:Gene Expression; D006801:Humans; D015151:Immunoblotting; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011379:Prognosis; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics*
D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases