The significance of HER-2/neu/c-erbB-2 gene amplification in benign and malignant breast disease.
This study was carried out to investigate the amplification of HER-2/neu oncogene in 66 patients with primary breast cancer and 90 samples from benign breast disease (BBD). The amplification of HER-2/neu oncogene in the DNA of paraffin-embedded specimens was determined by differential PCR. Nineteen out of 66 (28.8%) breast cancer patients showed amplification of the gene. No gene amplification was found in benign breast disease. There was no significant correlation of HER-2/neu amplification with, age, menopausal status, the number of positive nodes, tumor size, estrogen receptor, however, amplification of HER-2/neu gene was strongly correlated with nodal status (p = 0.0049). In node positive patients, the incidence of HER-2/neu amplification was high (43%). These findings indicate that the amplification of HER-2/neu gene may be of pathogenetic significance in breast cancer and may have a poor prognosis in node positive breast cancer patients while no gene amplification in benign breast disease suggests that HER-2/neu amplification is a late molecular alteration event in the pathogenesis of breast cancer.
Supanaranond
K
K
National Institute of Health, Department of Medical Sciences, Ministry of Public Health, Thailand.
Sukarayodhin
S
S
Tanyakaset
M
M
Balachandra
K
K
Jullaksorn
D
D
Rienkijkarn
M
M
Hoisanka
N
N
Tantivanich
S
S
D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D001941:Breast Diseases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D005784:Gene Amplification / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008593:Menopause; D008875:Middle Aged; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D011379:Prognosis; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000235:genetics*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012307:Risk Factors; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases