Similar articles

Abstract: Purpose: To exam the relationship between HER2 over-expression and different adjuvant chemotherapies in breast cancer. Patients and Methods: A total of 1625 primary breast cancer patients who received post-surgery adjuvant chemotherapy in Tianjin Cancer Hospital, China, from July 2002 to November 2005 were included in the study. Among them, 600 patients were given CMF (CTX+MTX+5-Fu) regimen, 600 given CEF (CTX+E-ADM+5-Fu) regimen, and 425 given anthracyclines plus taxanes regimen, with mean follow-up time of 42 months. Results: In CMF treatment group, the 3-year disease free survival (DFS) in HER2 over-expressed patients was lower than that of the HER2-negative ones (89.80% vs 91.24%, P=0.0348); in node-positive subgroup, the 3-year DFS was 84.72% in HER2 over-expressed patients, and 90.18% in the HER-2-negative ones (P=0.0271). Compared to CMF regimen, anthracyclines and anthracyclines plus taxanes regimens are more effective (P<0.05) in node-positive HER2 over-expression than those in the node-negative. Conclusion: HER2 over-expression is an independent index for predicting poor prognosis and short DFS for breast cancer patients. HER2 over-expressed patients are resistant to CMF regimen chemotherapy, but sensitive to anthracyclines-based or anthracyclines plus taxanes regimen. HER2 expression can be taken as a marker for therapies in breast cancer.

[1] Berns, E.M.J.J., Klijn, J.G.M., van Staveren, I.L., Portengen, H., Noordegraaf, E., Foekens, J.A., 1992. Prevalence of amplification of the oncogenes c-myc, HER-2/neu, and int-2in one thousand human breast tumors: correlation with steroid receptors. Eur. J. Cancer, 28(2-3):697-700.

[2] Chong, D., Cooke, T.G., Reeves, J.R., 1999. Quantitation of EGFR and c-erbB-2 expression in pre-invasive compared to invasive breast cancer. Eur. J. Cancer, 35(Suppl. 4):S203.

[3] Di Fiore, P.P., Pierce, J.H., Fleming, T.P., Hazan, R., Ullrich, A., King, C.R., Schlessinger, J., Aaronson, S.A., 1987. Over-expression of the human EGF receptor confers an EDF-dependent transformed phenotype to NIH 3T3 cells. Cell, 51(6):1063-1070.

[4] Ferretti, G., Felici, A., Papaldo, P., Fabi, A., Cognetti, F., 2007. HER2/neu role in breast cancer: from a prognostic foe to a predictive friend. Curr. Opin. Obstet. Gynecol., 19(1):56-62.

[5] Hayes, D.F., Thor, A.D., Dressler, L.G., Weaver, D., Edgerton, S., Cowan, D., Broadwater, G., Goldstein, L.J., Martino, S., Ingle, J.N., et al., 2007. HER2 and response to paclitaxel in node-positive breast cancer. N. Engl. J. Med., 357(15):1496-1506.

[6] Leong, T.Y., Leong, A.S., 2006. Controversies in the assessment of HER-2: more questions than answers. Adv. Anat. Pathol., 13(5):263-269.

[7] Pritchard, K.I., Shepherd, L.E., O'Malley, F.P., Andrulis, I.L., Tu, D., Bramwell, V.H., Levine, M.N., 2006. HER2 and responsiveness of breast cancer to adjuvant chemotherapy. N. Engl. J. Med., 354(20):2103-2111.

[8] Révillion, F., Lhotellier, V., Hornez, L., Bonneterre, J., Peyrat, J.P., 2007. ErbB/HER ligands in human breast cancer, and relationships with their receptors, the bio-pathological features and prognosis. Ann. Oncol., (Epub ahead of print).

[9] Shen, Z.Z., Shao, Z.M., 2002. Development of Modern Breast Cancer Oncology. Shanghai Science and Technology Publishing Company, China, p.128-129 (in Chinese).

[10] Shin, S.J., Hyjek, E., Early, E., Knowles, D.M., 2006. Intratumoral heterogeneity of her-2/neu in invasive mammary carcinomas using fluorescence in-situ hybridization and tissue microarray. Int. J. Surg. Pathol., 14(4):279-284.