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Is there a correlation between HER2 gene amplification level and response to neoadjuvant treatment with trastuzumab and chemotherapy in HER2-positive breast cancer?

Virchows Archiv volume 479, pages 853–857 (2021)Cite this article

A Correction to this article was published on 12 June 2021

This article has been updated

Abstract

There are contradictory data regarding the correlation between HER2 amplification level determined by in situ hybridization and evolution after treatment with anti-HER2 therapies. The aim of this study was to correlate quantitative results of FISH (ratio HER2/CEP17 and number of HER2 signals/nucleus) with pathological response achieved after neoadjuvant treatment with trastuzumab and chemotherapy. For this purpose, we analysed 100 consecutive HER2-positive cases of breast carcinoma treated with neoadjuvant therapy. HER2 amplification determined by FISH was found in 92 of the 100 cases studied. pCR was obtained in 58% of the patients whose tumours presented amplification. In contrast, no pCR was obtained in the 8 patients with non-amplified tumours. A significant direct correlation between HER2 high amplification (HER2/CEP17 ratio > 5 or HER2 signals/nucleus > 10) and pCR was found. In conclusion, HER2 amplification levels are clinically relevant because they provide oncologists with valuable information on the possibilities of achieving pCR after neoadjuvant treatment.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank María José Otero Fraga (Health Research Institute of Santiago, IDIS) and Dora Ínsua and Magalí Piso (Pathology Department of the University Clinical Hospital of Santiago) for their excellent technical support.

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Oncology, A Coruña University Hospital Complex, A Coruña, Spain

    Silvia Antolín, Cristina Reboredo, Aurea Molina, Joaquín Mosquera, Eva Pérez & Lourdes Calvo

  2. Department of Morphological Sciences, School of Medicine and Dentistry, Santiago de Compostela University, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    Lucía García-Caballero, Rosalía Gallego & Tomás García-Caballero

  3. Department of Pathology, Santiago de Compostela University Hospital Complex, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    Ángel Vázquez-Boquete & Tomás García-Caballero

  4. Department of Pathology, A Coruña University Hospital Complex, A Coruña, Spain

    Mari Paz Santiago & Ángel Concha

Authors
  1. Silvia Antolín
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  2. Lucía García-Caballero
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  3. Cristina Reboredo
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  4. Aurea Molina
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  5. Joaquín Mosquera
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  6. Ángel Vázquez-Boquete
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  7. Rosalía Gallego
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  8. Mari Paz Santiago
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  9. Ángel Concha
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  10. Eva Pérez
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  11. Lourdes Calvo
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  12. Tomás García-Caballero
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Contributions

SA, LGC, LC, and TGC designed the study, interpreted results, and wrote the manuscript. SA, CR, AM, JM, EP, and LC recruited and analysed clinical data. MPS and AC performed histopathological and immunohistochemical analysis. AVB, LGC, RG, and TGC performed FISH analysis. All authors revised and approved the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lucía García-Caballero.

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Ethics

The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Galicia (Spain) (code: SAN-TRA-2015–01).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

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The original online version of this article was revised: In the original published version of this article, the affiliations of the co-authors Lucía García-Caballero and Ángel Vázquez-Boquete were incorrectly presented. This has been corrected above.

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Antolín, S., García-Caballero, L., Reboredo, C. et al. Is there a correlation between HER2 gene amplification level and response to neoadjuvant treatment with trastuzumab and chemotherapy in HER2-positive breast cancer?. Virchows Arch 479, 853–857 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-021-03104-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-021-03104-7

Keywords

  • Breast cancer
  • FISH
  • HER2 amplification
  • Trastuzumab
  • Neoadjuvant therapy
  • Pathological complete response