Serum c-erB-2 levels in monitoring of operable breast cancer patients.
BACKGROUND
Various methods and criteria are used to determine protein overexpression of c-erbB-2 and the clinical utility of c-erbB-2 is under investigation. We have reported previously that the levels of cytosol c-erbB-2 in breast cancer were significantly different between the clinical stages.


METHODS
The levels of c-erbB-2 protein were determined in sera from 210 breast cancer patients using a sandwich enzyme immunoassay between November 1996 and March 1998. The cut-off level was set at 5.4 ng/ml for healthy female blood donors.


RESULTS
First, serum c-erbB-2 levels were analyzed in 73 preoperative breast cancer patients with stage I-IIIB disease. The range and median values were 2.3-32.3 and 4.8 ng/ml, respectively. The positive rate was 38%. Overexpression of serum c-erbB-2 was significantly associated with tumor size, clinical stage, histological grade, lymphatic invasion, nodal status and overexpression of cytosol c-erbB-2, but not with hormonal receptor status and other clinico-pathological factors. Second, c-erbB-2, CEA and CA15-3 in sera were examined in 157 postoperative breast cancer patients. In the 137 disease-free patients, specificities of c-erbB-2, CEA and CA15-3 were 72, 93 and 99%, respectively, but in the 20 first recurrent patients, these sensitivities were 80, 25 and 25%, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that serum c-erbB-2 protein is a useful marker for predicting aggressive behavior and first recurrence of breast cancer.
Imoto
S
S
Division of Breast Surgery, National Cancer Center Hospital East, Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan. simoto@east.ncc.go.jp
Kitoh
T
T
Hasebe
T
T
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000097:blood*
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases