[Intratumoral heterogeneity of HER2 status in breast carcinoma]

Publication

[Intratumoral heterogeneity of HER2 status in breast carcinoma]

Journal Paper/Review - Oct 1, 2010

Öhlschlegel Christian, Zahel K, Kradolfer D, Hell M, Jochum Wolfram

Citation

Öhlschlegel C, Zahel K, Kradolfer D, Hell M, Jochum W. [Intratumoral heterogeneity of HER2 status in breast carcinoma]. Pathologe 2010; 31 Suppl 2:292-5.

Type

Journal Paper/Review (Deutsch)

Journal

Pathologe 2010; 31 Suppl 2

Publication Date

Oct 1, 2010

Issn Electronic

1432-1963

Pages

292-5

Brief description/objective

Intratumoral heterogeneity of HER2 protein expression and HER2 gene amplification can negatively affect determination of HER2 status in a subset of invasive breast carcinomas. The frequency and clinical significance of HER2 genetic heterogeneity are unknown due to the lack of uniform criteria for diagnosis. Recent ASCO/CAP guidelines (2009) define HER2 genetic heterogeneity as the presence of between 5% and 50% of tumor cells with a HER2/CEP17 ratio >2.2. We describe a tool (a customized Excel spreadsheet) for easy and reproducible diagnosis of HER2 genetic heterogeneity according to ASCO/CAP criteria. Our tool may be useful for routine HER2 diagnostics and for studies to analyse the hitherto unknown predictive significance of HER2 genetic heterogeneity.