title: Serum HER-2 extracellular domain (ECD) before the first metastasis in 128 breast cancer patients.
abstract: We studied the serum HER-2 extracellular domain (sHER-2) before the first metastases in 128/701 breast cancer patients diagnosed and followed-up in our institution who developed metastases as the first relapse. sHER-2 was measured by an enzyme-linked immnunosorbent assay and CA 15.3 by an immunoradiometric assay. Non-parametric statistics were used. sHER-2 and CA 15.3 before and after primary treatment were measured in a previous part of the study. Before first metastases, 45% of the samples were over 12 microg/l of sHER-2 (cut-off) and were significantly related to sHER-2 values before and after primary treatment (P = 0.0350 and P < 0.0001 respectively). Concordance with CA 15.3 was 56.25 % (weak correlation, rho = 0.263). sHER-2 levels differed according to the sites of the metastases (P = 0.0199), the highest levels were found in liver and lung metastases. A median sHER-2 lead time of 254 days was found for 18/28 (64.3 %) patients before first metastasis. Pre-metastatic sHER-2 levels showed strong univariate (Kaplan-Meier method, P = 0.0014) and multivariate prognostic values (Cox model, P < 0.0001) for survival after first metastasis. In recurrent breast cancer, elevated levels of sHER-2 enabled an early detection of occult metastases and the identification of patients with a high probability of shortened survival.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Oncobiologie, Centre René Huguenin Saint-Cloud, France. mf.pichon@stcloud-huguenin.org
authors.forename: Marie-France
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Pichon
authors.forename: Kamel
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hacene
authors.forename: Sylvie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Guepratte
authors.forename: Rainer
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Neumann
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000556:secondary; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000556:secondary; D018396:Mucin-1 / Q000097:blood; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000097:blood* / Q000737:chemistry; D015996:Survival Rate
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D018396:Mucin-1; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases