title: Comparative study of spatial localization of HER-2 and CEP17 signals and of HER-2/CEP17 ratios, in "thin" and "thick" tissue sections.
abstract: One presumed drawback of performing fluorescence in situ hybridization on routine tissue sections for HER-2 status evaluation in breast carcinomas is nuclear truncation. Therefore, HER-2/CEP 17 ratios were compared in routine (4 μm) vs. thicker (15 μm) tissue sections. Additionally, the distances of both signals from the nuclear center were measured by three-dimensional image analysis. HER-2 and CEP 17 signals' number increased in thick sections; however, HER-2/CEP 17 ratios were decreased. This could be attributed to a preferential increase in CEP17 signals explained by their more peripheral localization and apparent "loss" in truncated nuclei. The aforementioned decrease of HER-2 ratios did not alter HER-2 status except in cases in the equivocal category where it changed from equivocal to non-amplified. Thus, at least a subset of the equivocal cases could represent an artifactual increase of HER-2 ratio related to nuclear truncation and loss of peripheral CEP 17 signals in routine sections.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Medical School, University of Thessaly, Larissa, Greece.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kouvaras
authors.forename: C N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Papandreou
authors.forename: D D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Daliani
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Athanasiadis
authors.forename: G K
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Koukoulis
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D002886:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 17 / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017404:In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; C508053:ERBB2 protein, human