overexpression of her2/neu as a prognostic value in iranian women with early stage breast cancer; a single institute study

conclusions this study on a limited number of patients treated with adjutant anthracyclins-based regimens, revealed that her2/neu is not a unique strong predictor for outcome, thus according to combination of her2/neu status and other clinical factors, it is necessary to distinguish patients at high risk of recurrence. results her2/neu amplification was identified in 19 (38%) of 50 patients. no significant difference regarding her2/neu status was seen in clinic pathological characteristics of patients. although progression free survival (pfs) was shorter in her2 overexpressed group, but uni/multivariate analysis adjusted for her2 overexpression, nodal involvement, hormone receptor status, age and tumor size revealed no significant predictive and/or prognostic value for her2 regarding pfs. objectives this study assessed prognostic value of her2/nue marker in patients with early stage breast cancer who received adjuvant chemotherapy with anthracyclins-based regimens. materials and methods fifty tissue samples from patients with primary breast cancer of moderate risk receiving sequential adjuvant chemotherapy with anthracyclins-based regimens were assessed to evaluate her2/nue gene status (quantified by immunohistochemistry and fluorescence in situ hybridization) retrospectively. besides, correlation of her2/neu with patients' characteristics and outcome was studied. background patients with early stage breast cancer with same treatment strategy can have markedly different outcomes. human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (her2/nue) gene amplification or the subsequent overexpression of protein has been proved to be associated with patient's outcome and response to anthracyclins-based regimens.