title: The significance of HER-2/neu/c-erbB-2 gene amplification in benign and malignant breast disease.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Health, Department of Medical Sciences, Ministry of Public Health, Thailand.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Supanaranond
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sukarayodhin
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tanyakaset
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Balachandra
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jullaksorn
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rienkijkarn
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hoisanka
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tantivanich
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases