title: Intratumoral heterogeneity of her-2/neu in invasive mammary carcinomas using fluorescence in-situ hybridization and tissue microarray.
abstract: Fluorescence in-situ hybridization is increasingly being used to determine HER-2/neu status in patients with breast carcinoma. The possibility that intratumoral heterogeneity of HER-2/neu gene amplification may potentially contribute to inaccurate assessment of HER-2/neu status was investigated in routine cases of invasive mammary carcinomas. From 169 representative formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded blocks of invasive duct mammary carcinomas with grade 3 architecture, 48 cases were analyzed by fluorescence in-situ hybridization and 59 analyses were performed. Intratumoral heterogeneity for HER-2/neu gene amplification was demonstrated in only 5 (16%) of 31 cases where morphologically similar areas of a single tumor were analyzed. We conclude from this study that intratumoral heterogeneity of HER-2/neu gene amplification is a demonstrable but relatively uncommon occurrence. For invasive mammary carcinomas, the accurate assessment of HER-2/neu status by fluorescence in-situ hybridization analysis is not significantly confounded by intratumoral heterogeneity of HER-2/neu gene amplification in individual tumors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, New York 10021, USA. sjshin@med.cornell.edu
authors.forename: Sandra J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hyjek
authors.forename: Erin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Early
authors.forename: Daniel M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Knowles
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D005784:Gene Amplification; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D017404:In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; D046228:Microarray Analysis; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases