title: Serological and immunohistochemical HER-2/neu statuses do not correlate and lack prognostic value for ovarian cancer patients.
abstract: The serodiagnostics of extracellular domain (ECD) HER-2/neu has turned into an evidenced-based tumour marker for HER-2/neu-positive breast cancer patients. This study investigated the clinical relevance of immunohistochemical and serum HER-2/neu in 44 patients with advanced ovarian cancer. The Hercept-Test® from DAKO Diagnostics was used to analyse immunohistochemical HER-2/neu expression. The HER-2/neu ECD in serum was determined quantitatively by Bayer Immuno 1™ Immunoanalyser. The HER-2/neu serum values were correlated to the clinical course of disease and to established prognostic factors, i.e. progression-free and overall survival. Some 23% of patients (n = 11) expressed HER-2/neu serum levels higher than 15 ng/mL, whereas only 7.7% (n = 2) of the patients examined by immunohistochemistry showed a HER-2/neu overexpression of the tissue. None of them revealed an overexpression of HER-2/neu ECD by serodiagnostics. HER-2/neu overexpression did not correlate significantly to any of the analysed prognostic factors. According to progression-free and overall survival, there was no significant difference between serologically HER-2/neu-positive or negative patients. For ovarian cancer patients, neither high HER-2/neu serum levels, nor immunohistochemically determined HER-2/neu positivity, appear to predict the course of disease. This study shows a lack of association between the immunohistochemical HER-2/neu status and the serum level of solute extracelluar HER-2/neu domain.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University Hospital of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hoopmann
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sachse
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Valter
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Becker
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Neumann
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ortmann
authors.forename: U-J
authors.initials: UJ
authors.lastname: Göhring
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mallmann
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schöndorf
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism*; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008875:Middle Aged; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D011379:Prognosis; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism*; D016019:Survival Analysis
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases