Cancer Letters

Cancer Letters

Volume 75, Issue 3, 20 December 1993, Pages 195-206
Cancer Letters

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay of HER-2/neu gene product (p185) in breast cancer: its correlation with sex steroid receptors, cathepsin D and histologic grades

https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3835(93)90062-EGet rights and content

Abstract

One hundred and nine primary breast cancers were analysed to assess the presence of the HER-2/neu gene product (p185), the oestrogen (ER) and the progesterone (PR) receptors, and the total cathepsin D status. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA kit, Oncogene Science Inc.) was used for the evaluation of p185 in pellets obtained after a 100 000 × g centrifugation, ER and PR were measured by enzyme immunoassay (EIA kit, Abbott Laboratories), and the total cathepsin D content was evaluated by immunoradiometric assay (IRMA kit, CIS Biointernational). We showed that the ELISA kit is feasible to quantify the p185 present in breast cancer cell membranes, and that the detector antibody recognises a protein of approximately Mr 185 000. The detected antigen was inversely related to both ER and PR, but it did not correlate to total cathepsin D. No significant differences were found in the expression of p185, ER, PR, cathepsin D between infiltrating ductal carcinomas without special features (NOS) and non-ductal (non-NOS) carcinomas. Nevertheless, in NOS carcinomas, a trend was observed in the p185 levels expressed by the tumours with different histological grades, in that p185 concentration was higher in the poorly differentiated grade 3 with respect to grade 2 and grade 1.

References (40)

  • E.M.J.J. Berns et al.

    c-myc amplification is a better prognostic factor than HER2/neu amplification in primary breast cancer

    Cancer Res.

    (1992)
  • N.D. Bloom et al.

    Histological grading and prognosis in breast cancer

    Br. J. Cancer

    (1957)
  • A. Borg et al.

    erbB-2 amplification in breast cancer with a high rate of proliferation

    Oncogene

    (1991)
  • M.M. Bradford

    A rapid and sensitive method for the quantitation of microgram quantities of protein utilizing the principle of protein-dye bindings

    Anal. Biochem.

    (1976)
  • G. Contesso et al.

    The importance of histologic grade in long-term prognosis of breast cancer: a study of 1010 patients, uniformly treated at the institut Gustave-Roussj

    J. Clin. Oncol.

    (1987)
  • L. Coussens et al.

    Tyrosine kinase receptor with exstensive homology to EGF receptor shares chromosomal location with neu oncogene

    Science

    (1985)
  • E.R. Fisher et al.

    Histologic grading of breast cancer

    Pathology Ann.

    (1980)
  • M. Garcia et al.

    Monoclonal antibodies to the oestrogen-regulated Mr 52 000 glycoprotein: characterization and immunodetection in MCF7 cells

    Cancer Res.

    (1985)
  • M. Guerin et al.

    Overexpression of either c-myc or c-erbB-2neu proto-oncogenes in human breast carcinomas: correlation with poor prognosis

    Oncogene Res.

    (1988)
  • M. Guerin et al.

    Structure and expression of c-erbB-2 and EGF receptor genes in inflamatory and non inflamatory breast cancer: prognostic significance

    Int. J. Cancer

    (1989)
  • Cited by (22)

    • Stepping forward in antibody-drug conjugate development

      2022, Pharmacology and Therapeutics
      Citation Excerpt :

      With tumor development, expression of the markers is elevated. Radioimmunoassay and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) are traditional identification methods of tumor markers (Marsigliante et al., 1993). At present, automatic immunochemical analysis instruments are commonly used detectors, which can rapidly and accurately measure serum tumor markers (Bi, Zhou, & Zhang, 2009).

    • Human epidermal growth factor receptor-2-positive breast cancer: Does estrogen receptor status define two distinct subtypes?

      2013, Annals of Oncology
      Citation Excerpt :

      During the last decade, there has been a remarkable progress in the management of HER2-positive breast cancers, with anti-HER2 regimens emerging as the cornerstone of treatment of this subtype of breast cancers. Initially, an inverse association was described between HER2 positivity and the presence of ER; nonetheless, the review of baseline tumor characteristics among several studies indicates that ∼50% of the patients with HER2-positive tumors are also ER-positive [3, 4]. Studies of a wide variety of regimens, including trastuzumab and other HER2-targeted agents for early-stage and metastatic disease have shown benefit across ER status in patients with HER2-positive disease.

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text