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In a cohort of breast cancer screened patients the proportion of HER2 positive cases is lower than that earlier reported and pathological characteristics differ between HER2 3+ and HER2 2+/Her2 amplified cases

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Abstract

Human epithelial growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) overexpression and/or amplification is of predictive and prognostic value in infiltrating breast carcinoma (IBC). We evaluated the proportion of HER2-positive cases (score 3 overexpression/score 2 plus fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) amplification) in a consecutive series of 2163 patients. According to immunohistochemical analysis of HER2 expression, using Herceptest and FDA criteria, 839 cases had score 0, 476 score 1+, 699 score 2+, and 149 score 3+. Of the 699 scoring 2+ cases, 160 (22.88 %) showed Her2 gene amplification by FISH analysis, making a total of 309 (14.28 %) HER2-positive cases. Grade 1 ductal and special type IBC were never HER2 positive, while only three infiltrating lobular carcinomas but a relevant percentage of small IBC were HER2 positive. Of HER2-positive cases, 52.1 % was pT1 and of these, 38.5 % was pT1b or smaller. Logistic regression analysis revealed that estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PgR), grade, and pT were significantly associated with HER2 positivity and that HER2 3+ cases were more frequently of higher grade and pT than HER2 2+/Her2 amplified cases. In addition, HER2 3+ cases were more frequently in ER and PgR negative than HER2 2+/Her2 amplified cases. We conclude that the proportion of HER2 positive cases is lower than that reported in older literature and that pathological characteristics differ between HER2 3+ and HER2 2+/Her2 amplified cases.

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Acknowledgments

The study has been partly supported by a grant from Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Trento e Rovereto, progetto Trebionet.

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Correspondence to Mattia Barbareschi.

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Giuliani, S., Ciniselli, C.M., Leonardi, E. et al. In a cohort of breast cancer screened patients the proportion of HER2 positive cases is lower than that earlier reported and pathological characteristics differ between HER2 3+ and HER2 2+/Her2 amplified cases. Virchows Arch 469, 45–50 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-016-1940-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-016-1940-y

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