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The follow-up to the 1987 discovery: extra copies of the HER2 gene were found in about a quarter to a third of breast cancers and also in ovarian cancers, they led to overproduction of the HER2 protein, and they marked patients with worse outcomes in both diseases.
Slamon and colleagues examined HER2/neu gene amplification and expression in 526 breast cancers and 120 ovarian cancers. Amplification was present in about a quarter to a third of the breast tumours and was tightly linked to overexpression of HER2 messenger RNA and protein, so measuring the protein could stand in for measuring the gene. Amplification and overexpression were associated with poorer survival in breast cancer and, for the first time, were shown in ovarian cancer with a similar prognostic effect.
This study confirmed HER2 as a prognostic marker and a therapeutic target, showed that immunohistochemistry could identify the patients, and extended the target to ovarian cancer. It set up the clinical development of trastuzumab and the HER2 testing that every breast cancer now receives.
Shares Slamon 1987: HER2 gene amplification marks an aggressive form of breast cancer, Deliver CAR-T cells straight into the fluid around the brain, Re-map the tumour's surface proteins before choosing the next antibody drug, Use the brain's own transport door to carry antibody drugs across.
Shares Dennis J. Slamon, UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, HER2, HER2-positive breast cancer.
Shares Deliver CAR-T cells straight into the fluid around the brain, Use the brain's own transport door to carry antibody drugs across, HER2-positive breast cancer.
Shares Slamon 2001: adding trastuzumab to chemotherapy for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer, HER2.
Shares Re-map the tumour's surface proteins before choosing the next antibody drug, Use the brain's own transport door to carry antibody drugs across, HER2-positive breast cancer.
Shares Deliver CAR-T cells straight into the fluid around the brain, Re-map the tumour's surface proteins before choosing the next antibody drug.
Shares Re-map the tumour's surface proteins before choosing the next antibody drug, HER2.