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- HER2
- ovarian cancer
- IHC
- FISH
- biomarker
- ovarian tumour
- immunohistochemistry
- gynaecological pathology
- breast cancer
- tumour markers
- colorectal cancer
- proteins
- molecular pathology
We read with interest the recent article by Yan et al,1 in which a small cohort (n=85) of ovarian tumours were assessed for HER2 amplification by immunohistochemistry (IHC), fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) and chromogenic in situ hybridisation. HER2 amplification and protein overexpression were identified in 35.3% (6/17) and 29.4% (5/17) of primary mucinous carcinomas, respectively, with none of the other histological subtypes demonstrating HER2 amplification or overexpression. In another recent study, Tan et al.2 used array-based comparative genomic hybridisation to establish the genomic profiles and regions of recurrent copy number change in 50 pure ovarian clear cell carcinomas (OCCCs). In that study, 7/50 (14%) OCCCs were found to harbour HER2 gene amplification and protein overexpression, representing <2% of the ovarian cancer population as a whole. The authors in both studies quite rightly conclude that HER2 may therefore be a potential therapeutic target in non-serous ovarian tumours. However, since there is documented evidence of HER2 overexpression in other histological subtypes of ovarian cancer, including serous carcinomas3–5 and some HER2-directed therapies (such as pertuzumab), may be effective against tumours which express non-amplified levels of the receptor,6 we sought to better define the frequency, quantity and distribution of HER2 expression …
Footnotes
Competing interests None.
Ethics approval The study was approved by Lothian Research Ethics Committee (08/S1101/41).
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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