Pathological characteristics and dynamic changes analysis of low human epidermal growth factor 2 expression in breast cancer

  • WANG Mengqi ,
  • BAI Xuefeng ,
  • ZHAO Zhiying
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  • 1. Department of Human Anatomy , Baotou Medical College, Baotou 014040,China;
    2. Department of Pathology, Baotou Cancer Hospital

Received date: 2024-02-18

  Online published: 2025-03-11

Abstract

Objective: To study the pathological characteristics of low HER2 expression in human breast cancer, detect the expression level by RT-qPCR, track the evolution of HER2 expression from needle biopsy to receive neoadjuvant treatment, and explore the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Methods: A total of 293 HER2 negative patients and low HER2 expression admitted to Baotou Cancer Hospital from January 2019 to December 2022 were selected .FISH and RT-qPCR were used to detect the expression level of HER2 in the two groups. Results: In contrast to the HER2 negative group, low expression group of HER2 was significant statistical differences in ER, PR, MP grade, P53 and lymph node metastasis (P<0.05); There was no obvious relationship with age (P=0.731); The results of FISH analysis showed that the data of the two groups were significantly overlapped; and the mRNA expression level of RT-qPCR was a statistical difference (P<0.001).The optimal threshold by ROC curve was 184.18. RT-qPCR compared to IHC, the consistency between the two methods was 0.502, a medium level. Before and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, the incidence of HER2 discordance was 39.8%; There is a close correlation between HER2 status and the probability of obtaining pCR (P=0.005). Conclusion: HER2 low breast cancer differ from HER2 negative in pathological features. Quantitative detection of HER2 mRNA expression by RT-qPCR can be used as a complementary technique for IHC method. The expression of HER2 showed high instability following neoadjuvant therapy. Moreover, neoadjuvant chemotherapy has less efficacy in patients with HER2 low breast cancer.

Cite this article

WANG Mengqi , BAI Xuefeng , ZHAO Zhiying . Pathological characteristics and dynamic changes analysis of low human epidermal growth factor 2 expression in breast cancer[J]. Journal of Baotou Medical College, 2025 , 41(2) : 69 -74 . DOI: 10.16833/j.cnki.jbmc.2025.02.013

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