title: Is it necessary to evaluate nuclei in HER2 FISH evaluation?
abstract: A new method that simplifies the evaluation of the traditional HER2 fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) evaluation in breast cancer was proposed. HER2 status was evaluated in digital images (DIs) captured from 423 invasive breast cancer stained sections. All centromeric/CEP17 and HER2 gene signals obtained from separated stacked DIs were manually counted on the screen. The global ratios were compared with the traditional FISH evaluation and the immunohistochemical status. The 2 FISH scores were convergent in 96.93% of cases, showing an "almost perfect" agreement with a weighted k of 0.956 (95% confidence interval, 0.928-0.985). The new method evaluates at least 3 times more nuclei than traditional methods and also has an almost perfect agreement with the immunohistochemical scores. The proposed enhanced method substantially improves HER2 FISH assessment in breast cancer biopsy specimens because the evaluation of HER2/CEP17 copy numbers is more representative, easier, and faster than the conventional method.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Biology and Research Section, Hospital de Tortosa Verge de la Cinta, IISPV, URV, Tortosa, Spain. clopezp.ebre.ics@gencat.cat
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: López
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tomás
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Korzynska
authors.forename: Ramón
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bosch
authors.forename: Maria T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Salvadó
authors.forename: Montserrat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Llobera
authors.forename: Marcial
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Garcia-Rojo
authors.forename: Tomás
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Alvaro
authors.forename: Joaquín
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jaén
authors.forename: Marylène
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lejeune
mesh_terms: D001706:Biopsy; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics*; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics*; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D002503:Centromere / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D002886:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 17; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D017404:In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; D015588:Observer Variation; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000235:genetics*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
chemical_list: D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; C508053:ERBB2 protein, human