HER2-positive circulating tumor cells indicate poor clinical outcome in stage I to III breast cancer patients.
OBJECTIVE
Early metastasis in node-negative breast cancer indicates that breast cancer cells obviously can bypass the lymph nodes and disseminate directly hematogenous to distant organs. For this purpose, we evaluated the prognostic value of blood-borne, HER2-positive circulating tumor cells (CTC) in the peripheral blood from 42 breast cancer patients with a median follow-up of 95 months.


METHODS
Cells were isolated by the patented combined buoyant density gradient and immunomagnetic separation procedure and analyzed by immunocytochemistry.


RESULTS
We detected one to eight CTCs in the peripheral blood of 17 of 35 patients (48.6%) presenting no overt metastasis. As a positive control, 7 of 7 (100%) patients with metastatic disease presented positive. Healthy persons and patients (n = 32) operated for nonmalignant diseases presented negative for CTCs. The presence and frequency of HER2-positive CTCs correlated with a significantly decreased disease-free survival (P < 0.005) and overall survival (P < 0.05). Interestingly, in 12 patients with HER2-positive CTCs, the primary tumor was negative for HER2 as assessed by immunohistochemical score and fluorescence in situ hybridization.


CONCLUSIONS
This study provides some evidence of a prognostic effect of HER2-positive CTCs in stage I to III breast cancer. Future studies have to determine the outcome of patients treated with HER2-targeting therapies with respect to HER2-positive CTC levels because it is not unlikely that high levels of HER2-positive CTCs reflect the activity of the tumor and may predict response to trastuzumab.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Gerhard-Domagk Institute of Pathology, and Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, University of Münster, Münster, Germany. wuelfip@uni-muenster.de
Pia
P
Wülfing
Julia
J
Borchard
Horst
H
Buerger
Stefan
S
Heidl
Kurt S
KS
Zänker
Ludwig
L
Kiesel
Burkhard
B
Brandt
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D017404:In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating / Q000378:metabolism*; D011379:Prognosis; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 / Q000032:analysis; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000032:analysis* / Q000235:genetics; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000032:analysis; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone / Q000032:analysis; D016019:Survival Analysis
D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone