Emerging technologies for assessing HER2 amplification.

Abstract

Patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2)+ breast cancer are eligible for trastuzumab treatment; therefore, accurate assessment of HER2 status is essential. Until recently, only 2 methods were validated for determining the HER2 status of breast tumors in the routine diagnostic setting: immunohistochemical analysis and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Recently, bright-field in situ hybridization techniques such as chromogenic in situ hybridization (CISH) and silver-enhanced in situ hybridization (SISH), which combine features of immunohistochemical analysis and FISH, have been introduced for the determination of HER2 status. These new techniques use a peroxidase enzyme-labeled probe with chromogenic detection, instead of a fluorescent-labeled probe, allowing results to be visualized by standard bright-field microscopy. Thus, the histologic features and HER2 status of a specimen can be evaluated in parallel. Moreover, signals do not decay over time. This review discusses recent publications regarding CISH and SISH testing, including results scoring and concordance between FISH and immunohistochemical analysis.

• Authors: Frédérique Penault-Llorca, Michael Bilous, Mitch Dowsett, Wedad Hanna, Robert Yoshiyuki Osamura, Josef Rüschoff, Marc van de Vijver
• Journal: American journal of clinical pathology (Am J Clin Pathol) Vol. 132 Issue 4 Pg. 539-48 (Oct 2009) ISSN: 1943-7722 [Electronic] England
• PMID: 19762531 (Publication Type: Comparative Study, Journal Article, Review)

Chemical References

• Antibodies, Monoclonal
• Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized
• Chromogenic Compounds
• Silver
• ERBB2 protein, human
• Receptor, ErbB-2
• Trastuzumab

Topics

• Algorithms
• Antibodies, Monoclonal
• Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized
• Breast Neoplasms (genetics)
• Chromogenic Compounds
• Gene Amplification
• Genes, erbB-2 (genetics)
• Humans
• Immunohistochemistry (methods)
• In Situ Hybridization (methods)
• In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence (methods)
• Observer Variation
• Receptor, ErbB-2 (biosynthesis, genetics)
• Silver
• Trastuzumab