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Predictive value of serum HER2 ECD in patients with HER2-positive advanced gastric cancer treated with trastuzumab plus chemotherapy

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An Erratum to this article was published on 08 March 2016

A Letter to the Editor to this article was published on 18 February 2016

Abstract

Background

The levels of serum HER2 extracellular domain (ECD) are highly correlated with tissue HER2 status in metastatic gastric cancer (AGC). We sought to explore whether serum HER2 ECD could predict the efficacy of trastuzumab-treated HER2-positive AGC.

Materials and methods

From 2011 to 2013, trastuzumab-treated AGC patients were enrolled. Serum HER2 ECD was centrally measured by chemiluminescence immunoassays (CLIA) method in available samples at baseline and after two cycles of trastuzumab combined with chemotherapy. The correlation between serum HER2 ECD and overall response rate (ORR) and progression-free survival (PFS) was analyzed.

Results

Sixty-five patients were analyzed with a median age of 58 years (range, 27–80 years). A significant difference of serum HER2 ECD levels was found between patients with HER2 IHC 3+ and those with HER2 IHC 2+ and FISH positive (p = 0.014). There was a significantly better ORR (80.00 vs. 50.00 %, p = 0.017) and PFS (median PFS, 268 vs. 139 days, p = 0.039) for patients with abnormal baseline serum HER2 ECD than for patients with normal serum HER2 ECD. Change in serum HER2 ECD during chemotherapy was significantly correlated with response to chemotherapy (79.17 vs. 51.52 %, p = 0.033) and PFS (median PFS, 303 vs. 147 days, p = 0.005) in patients with HER2-positive tumor tissue.

Conclusions

Our results support the clinical utility of measuring serum HER2 ECD levels in patients with advanced gastric cancer. Baseline and early changes in serum HER2 ECD could be useful for monitoring clinical outcome in HER2-positive AGC patients receiving trastuzumab-combined chemotherapy.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the patients who participated in this study. The authors would also like to thank the staff of Translational Medicine Center, Laboratory of Oncology, Affiliated Hospital of Academy of Military Medical Sciences. This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81172110, 81472789), National High Technology Research and Development Program (No. 2012AA 02A 504), National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2014CBA02002), Beijing Natural Science Foundation (7142034) and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2013M530494). No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Gastrointestinal Oncology, Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education), Peking University Cancer Hospital and Institute, FuCheng Road 52, HaiDian District, Beijing, 100142, China

      Jun Zhou, Zhi Peng, Jifang Gong, Xiaotian Zhang, Ming Lu, Jing Gao, Yili Li, Yanyan Li & Lin Shen

    2. Translational Medicine Center, Laboratory of Oncology, Affiliated Hospital of Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Beijing, China

      Yi Liu

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    1. Jun Zhou
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    Correspondence to Zhi Peng.

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    J. Zhou and Z. Peng contributed equally to this work.

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    Zhou, J., Peng, Z., Liu, Y. et al. Predictive value of serum HER2 ECD in patients with HER2-positive advanced gastric cancer treated with trastuzumab plus chemotherapy. J Gastroenterol 50, 955–961 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00535-015-1046-3

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00535-015-1046-3

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