title: Evaluation of immunohistochemistry and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay for HER-2/neu expression in breast carcinoma.
abstract: HER-2 is overexpressed in approximately 20-30% of invasive Breast Cancer. ECD of the HER-2 protein is frequently cleaved and released into the circulation, where it can be detected by ELISA in up to 45% of patients with metastatic breast cancer. The objective of our study was to compare the current methods for the detection of HER-2 protein. Tissue HER-2 levels were studied in 100 breast cancer patients by IHC and compared with serum HER-2 levels by ELISA. IHC frequency was 29%. Serum HER-2 ECD was positive in 42% of patients. A statistically significant correlation was observed. HER-2 detected by IHC correlates significantly with serum HER-2 levels detected by ELISA. Thus, ELISA is a reliable and economical tool to assess the HER-2 status in tumors, when breast tissue sample is not available.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology, Bangalore, 560029 India.
authors.forename: Rani
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: James
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Thriveni
authors.forename: Girija
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ramaswamy
authors.forename: Lakshmi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Krishnamoorthy
authors.forename: Geetashree
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mukherjee
authors.forename: P P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Vijayalaxmi Deshmane
authors.forename: P P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Bapsy
keywords: Breast cancer; ECD; ELISA; HER-2; IHC