title: Emerging technologies for assessing HER2 amplification.
abstract: Patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2)+ breast cancer are eligible for trastuzumab treatment; therefore, accurate assessment of HER2 status is essential. Until recently, only 2 methods were validated for determining the HER2 status of breast tumors in the routine diagnostic setting: immunohistochemical analysis and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Recently, bright-field in situ hybridization techniques such as chromogenic in situ hybridization (CISH) and silver-enhanced in situ hybridization (SISH), which combine features of immunohistochemical analysis and FISH, have been introduced for the determination of HER2 status. These new techniques use a peroxidase enzyme-labeled probe with chromogenic detection, instead of a fluorescent-labeled probe, allowing results to be visualized by standard bright-field microscopy. Thus, the histologic features and HER2 status of a specimen can be evaluated in parallel. Moreover, signals do not decay over time. This review discusses recent publications regarding CISH and SISH testing, including results scoring and concordance between FISH and immunohistochemical analysis.
authors.affiliation: Départment de Pathologie, Centre Jean Perrin, 63011 Clermont-Ferrand Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Frédérique
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Penault-Llorca
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bilous
authors.forename: Mitch
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dowsett
authors.forename: Wedad
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hanna
authors.forename: Robert Yoshiyuki
authors.initials: RY
authors.lastname: Osamura
authors.forename: Josef
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rüschoff
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van de Vijver
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D061067:Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics; D002863:Chromogenic Compounds; D005784:Gene Amplification; D018734:Genes, erbB-2 / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry / Q000379:methods; D017403:In Situ Hybridization / Q000379:methods; D017404:In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods; D015588:Observer Variation; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D012834:Silver; D000068878:Trastuzumab
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D061067:Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized; D002863:Chromogenic Compounds; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D012834:Silver; D000068878:Trastuzumab; C508053:ERBB2 protein, human