title: C-erbB-2 overexpression and survival in early onset breast cancer.
abstract: Young breast cancer patients have a decreased survival rate and it has been demonstrated that young age is an independent predictor of adverse prognosis. Overexpression of c-erbB-2 protein (also known as HER-2/neu) has been shown to be a prognostic indicator in breast cancer in general and especially among patients with axillary nodal metastases. The present study was initiated to determine the prognostic significance of c-erbB-2 protein overexpression in early onset breast cancer. A population consisting of 110 young breast cancer patients, < or = 36-year-old at diagnosis, was analyzed with immunohistochemical staining for c-erbB-2 protein. Thirty patients (27%) were found to overexpress the c-erbB-2 protein. C-erbB-2 positivity was significantly associated with poor survival when all patients were included in the analysis (P = 0.002) and for patients with axillary nodal metastases (P = 0.0007). No such association was found for node-negative patients. Furthermore, the difference in prognosis in relation to c-erbB-2 among node-positive patients was maintained, when these were stratified in groups treated or not treated with adjuvant chemotherapy. The study indicates that overexpression of c-erbB-2 protein is a strong prognostic factor in young breast cancer patients with axillary nodal metastases. Moreover, the adverse prognosis associated with c-erbB-2 overexpression in node-positive patients was observed whether or not the patients had received adjuvant chemotherapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedicine and Surgery, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University, Sweden. Mans.Agrup@lio.se
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Agrup
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Stål
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Olsen
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wingren
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality*; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D018734:Genes, erbB-2 / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D011379:Prognosis; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000032:analysis / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases