Amplification and overexpression of HER-2/neu are uncommon in advanced stage melanoma

The HER-2/neu proto-oncogene is a useful prognostic and predictive biomarke r in breast cancer. lit addition, use of a humanized monoclonal antibody ag ainst HER-2/neu has recently been shown to have efficacy in the treatment o f metastatic breast cancer in order to examine the potential of HER-2/neu a s a biomarker and as a target for HER-2/neu monoclonal antibody treatment i n melanoma, we examined the HER-2/neu status in 40 advanced stage melanomas . Using fluorescence in situ hybridization for determining the gene amplifi cation status and immunohistochemistry for detecting protein overexpression , we found that only one out of 40 cases of melanoma had an altered HER-2/n eu status. These results demonstrated that HER-2/neu amplification and over expression are not common in advanced stage melanoma and thus HER-2/neu wou ld have limited value as a biomarker or as a target for immunotherapy in me lanoma.