title: Cytoplasmic staining of c-erbB-2 is not associated with the presence of detectable c-erbB-2 mRNA in breast cancer specimens.
abstract: The cell-surface receptor tyrosine kinase protein c-erbB-2 is immunocytochemically detected as membrane staining on the surface of cancer cells in 20-30% of cases of breast cancer, and its presence has been associated with poor prognosis for the patient. However, there have been numerous reports of immunocytochemical staining for c-erbB-2 solely in the cytoplasm of some normal and tumour specimens with frequently used anti-sera, and the presence of such staining has been difficult to interpret. It is not known for certain that cytoplasmic c-erbB-2 staining is an artefact of the immunocytochemical procedures used. Thus, mRNA for c-erbB-2 has been quantified in tumours exhibiting only cytoplasmic staining or varying levels of membrane staining using a sensitive, competitive PCR method. Whereas abundant levels of c-erbB-2 mRNA are found in tumours exhibiting membrane staining for c-erbB-2 and these levels correlate with the percentage of tumour cells showing membranous staining for c-erbB-2, the level of c-erbB-2 mRNA in tumours displaying only cytoplasmic staining is no higher than in c-erbB-2-negative specimens.
authors.affiliation: Cancer Tissue Bank Research Centre, School of Biological Sciences, University of Liverpool, UK.
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Platt-Higgins
authors.forename: P S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Rudland
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Winstanley
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Barraclough
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D003593:Cytoplasm / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000032:analysis; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases