c-erbB-2 protein level in tissue and sera of breast cancer patients: a possibly useful clinical correlation.
OBJECTIVE
The aims of this study were to assess the clinical utility of circulating preoperative HER-2 extracellular domain p105 detected by enzyme immunoassay (ELISA), to compare the tissue expression of HER-2/neu determined by immunohistochemistry (IHC), to correlate prognostic factors including tumor size, nodal involvement, and hormone receptor status, and to analyze the prognostic significance of the marker in relation to clinical outcome as measured by disease-free and overall survival.


METHODS
In this study, we enrolled 108 consecutive patients with breast carcinoma, and obtained serum samples and frozen tumor tissues. We compared them with 57 women with fibroadenoma and 63 healthy women as controls.


RESULTS
Univariate ANOVA analysis showed no relationship between HER-2/neu in tissue and serum. Preoperative serum levels of p105 were significantly higher in breast cancer patients than in women with benign disease or healthy women. Concerning the correlation between p105, HER-2/neu tissue expression, and the other prognostic factors, a statistically significant correlation between high serum p105 levels and ER-negative status in breast cancer patients was found. Kaplan-Meier analysis confirmed that patients with positive HER-2/neu tissue expression had a significantly shorter survival than those with negative expression. Analysis with the Cox model demonstrated that tumor size was the only significant independent prognostic factor.


CONCLUSIONS
This research failed to demonstrate a relationship between preoperative tissue overexpression and circulating HER-2/neu, suggesting that p105 does not represent a valid alternative to predict a worsened prognosis in breast cancer, but it could be a diagnostic marker to discriminate healthy subjects from breast cancer patients.
Quaranta
Michele
M
Chemical-Clinical Microbiology and Immunology Laboratory Unit, National Oncology Institute of Bari, Bari, Italy. Antonella27@inwind.it
Daniele
Antonella
A
Coviello
Maria
M
Savonarola
Annalisa
A
Abbate
Ines
I
Venneri
Maria Teresa
MT
Paradiso
Angelo
A
Stea
Baldassarre
B
Zito
Alfredo
A
Labriola
Angela
A
Schittulli
Francesco
F
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D034961:Antigens, Nuclear / Q000097:blood; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D002868:Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone / Q000097:blood; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D018226:Fibroadenoma / Q000378:metabolism; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism*; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000378:metabolism; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone / Q000378:metabolism; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D016019:Survival Analysis; D015854:Up-Regulation
D034961:Antigens, Nuclear; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D002868:Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone; C478629:P105 antigen, human