Publication details
Serum HER-2/neu: a tumor marker for monitoring response to treatment of metastatic breast cancer with trastuzumab
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2006 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | 19th meeting of European Association For Cancer Research |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Oncology and hematology |
| Keywords | serum her2/neu;trastuzumab;breast cancer |
| Description | Introduction: HER-2/neu, the oncoprotein from growth factor receptor family, is overexpressed in primary tumor tissue in approximately 30% patients with breast cancer. Extracellular domain of this oncoprotein is released into the circulation and by recent studies it has prognostic and predictive signification similar to HER-2/neu in tissue. Material and Methods: We evaluated dynamics of serum HER-2/neu (S_HER2) changes during the course of trastuzumab-based therapy, by the specific antibody directed against the extracellular domain (ELISA, Oncogene Science, USA). We had opportunity to repeatedly tested S_HER2 in 69 patients with metastatic breast cancer undergoing treatment in years 200-2005 in our institute. Results: Patients without the response to treatment at the time of the first restaging (3 months), had significantly elevated S_HER2 levels, that generally do not drop below the discriminatory level. The patients with the best clinical response achieved (complete or partial response) are commonly S_HER2 negative after 3 months of the therapy, even if they were serum-positive at the beginning of the treatment. Serum CA15-3 and CEA levels do not show significant differences in this two groups of responders. Likewise in longitudinally monitoring over the time course of trastuzumab-based treatment the predictor of the therapy failure is mainly elevated S_HER2. Conclusion: Monitoring the concentrations of serum HER2 during the trastuzumab therapy appears to be a suitable therapy efficacy validation parameter both at the start and during long-term therapy application. Acknowledgements: The work was supported by grants from IGA MZCR: No. NR/8335-3 and No. NR/8270-3. |