TISSUE EXPRESSION AND SERUM LEVELS OF HER-2 NEU IN PATIENTS WITH BREAST-CANCER/

We have analyzed serum levels of soluble HER-2/neu in 42 primary breas t cancer patients prior to any therapy and studied the relationship be tween the overexpression and amplification of HER-2/neu in the primary tumor after surgical excision and data obtained by pathohistological staging, In addition, we have investigated the sera of 62 patients wit h stage IV breast cancer. Using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, we observed elevated serum HER-2/neu levels in 6/42 (14.2%) preoperati ve patients. In 42.8% of the patients with HER-2/neu tumor expression/ amplification serum levels were increased. In contrast, only 8.5% of t he patients without HER-2/neu expression/amplification in the primary tumor presented with elevated serum levels. There was a significant co rrelation between serum concentrations of soluble HER-2/neu and tumor size (p < 0.0001) or axillary lymph node involvement (p < 0.0001). In patients with stage IV disease, 27 of 62 (43.5%) had elevated soluble HER-2/neu serum levels. A highly significant correlation between solub le HER-2/neu and CA 15-3 (p < 0.002) was observed. The correlation of serum concentrations of HER-2/neu with estrogen and progesterone recep tor status of the primary tumor was not significant in both groups. In conclusion, the measurement of serum HER-2/neu levels at diagnosis de fines a small subgroup of breast cancer patients with a relatively adv anced stage of disease. Its strong correlation with tumor load in pati ents with stage II disease and the high prevalence in patients with st age IV disease could make it a promising tool for the assessment of di sease activity and biologic behavior in breast cancer.