TY - JOUR T1 - Tissue Expression and Serum Levels of the Oncoprotein HER-2/<em>neu</em> in 157 Primary Breast Tumours JF - Anticancer Research JO - Anticancer Res SP - 1433 LP - 1440 VL - 25 IS - 2B AU - C. PALLUD AU - J.M. GUINEBRETIERE AU - S. GUEPRATTE AU - K. HACENE AU - R. NEUMANN AU - W. CARNEY AU - M.F. PICHON Y1 - 2005/03/01 UR - http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/25/2B/1433.abstract N2 - Background: We studied HER-2 expression in paired serum and tissue samples, in 157 selected cases from 701 consecutive primary breast cancer patients with pre-treatment HER-2 extracellular domain (ECD) ≥ 10 ng/ml, or &lt; 10 ng/ml but showing a HER-2 ECD lead time before first metastasis. Patients and Methods: HER-2 ECD was measured by the Immuno 1 automated ELISA (Bayer). Tumour tissue was analysed by immunohistochemistry (IHC) with Dako A 0485 and CB 11 antibodies and scored with the Dako scoring system. Results: Mean HER-2 ECD was 12.48±7.08 ng/ml and 21/157 (13.4%) sera were ≥ 15 ng/ml (cut-off). Forty tumours (25.48%) showed both invasive and intraductal components, 3 (1.91%) were pure in situ carcinomas and 114 (72.61%) were pure invasive tumours. Elevated HER-2 ECD concentration was related only to pT (p=0.0008), histological grade (p=0.0465), presence of comedonecrosis (p=0.0123) or comedo-type carcinoma (p=0.041) and was unrelated to the presence of an intraductal component. HER-2 ECD was ≥ 15 ng/ml in 48% of Dako 3+ and 60% of CB 11 2+ and 3+ tumours. By logistic regression analysis, the significant parameters associated with HER-2 ECD concentration were pT (p=0.0038) and Dako 3+ scores (p=0.0005). In Dako 3+ or CB 11 2+3+ tumours, elevated mean HER-2 ECD concentrations were observed only when pT exceeded 28-30 mm (p=0.0062 and p=0.0036, respectively). Conclusion: In breast tumours, a threshold in size and HER-2 overexpression is necessary to observe elevated concentrations of HER-2 ECD at diagnosis. This information may be useful when the primary tumour is not available for IHC. Copyright© 2005 International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. John G. Delinassios), All rights reserved ER -