ArticleScientific reports2022
HER2-low breast cancer shows a lower immune response compared to HER2-negative cases.
Article in Scientific reports, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 47 citations in OpenAlex.
- Influence of HER2-low and HER2-zero status on pathologic complete response and survival in triple-negative breast cancer: a meta-analysis.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Pooled it
- Triple-Negative Breast Cancer and Predictive Markers of Response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy: A Systematic Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Pooled it
- A multigene model for response stratification to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in triple negative breast cancer.Breast (Edinburgh, Scotland) · 2026Article
- Clinicopathologic characteristics and genomic profiling of HER2-low advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancer.ESMO open · 2026Article
- Genome-wide biomarker analysis across the full spectrum of HER2-expressing breast cancers to reveal a clonal chromosome 17 imbalance defining unfavourable HER2-low disease.Biomarker research · 2026Article
- Mechanisms of Resistance and Synergy: The Role of Tumor Microenvironment in HER2-Low Breast Cancer Therapy.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Comparison of clinical characteristics and survival between HER2-zero and HER2-low in early breast cancer: a retrospective observational study.Clinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico · 2026Observational
- Dynamic inflammatory biomarkers as prognostic indicators in advanced breast cancer patients receiving PD-1 inhibitors.Therapeutic advances in medical oncology · 2026Article
- Association Between Peripheral Blood Lymphocyte Count and HER2 Status in Breast Cancer: A Retrospective Study.International journal of women's health · 2026Article
- Association between tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and oncotype DX estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 single gene scores in hormone receptor-positive/HER2-negative breast cancer.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Article
- HER2-Low Breast Cancer at the Interface of Pathology and Technology: Toward Precision Management.Biomedicines · 2025Review
- HER2 expression in breast cancer: evidence gaps and challenges.NPJ precision oncology · 2025Review
- HER2-low breast cancer is immune-cold: insights into tumor-infiltrating immune cells and implications for immunotherapy.NPJ breast cancer · 2025Article
- Clinical characteristics and prognostic impact of HER2-ultralow breast cancer and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs).BMC cancer · 2025Article
- Differences in Sentinel lymph node biopsy outcomes and prognosis between HER2-low and HER2-zero breast cancer.BMC cancer · 2025Article
- Factors influencing the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy for HER-2-low early-stage breast cancer and a predictive model for pathological complete response.Gland surgery · 2025Article
- Epigenetic determinants of an immune-evasive phenotype in HER2-low triple-negative breast cancer.NPJ precision oncology · 2025Article
- ERBB2-Low Expression by Race and Ethnicity Among Patients With Triple-Negative Breast Cancer.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Genomic Landscape of Breast Cancer: Study Across Diverse Ethnic Groups.Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Efficacy and safety of Eribulin-based chemotherapy in HER2 negative advanced breast cancer patients: a real-world study.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Currently, the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) status of breast cancer is classified dichotomously as negative or positive to select patients for HER2-targeted therapy. However, with the introduction of novel treatment options, it is important to get more insight in the biology of cancers with low HER2 expression. Therefore, we studied several clinicopathologic characteristics in relation to the level of HER2 expression (HER2- versus HER2low). We used a well-documented cohort of breast cancer patients (n = 529), with available tissue microarrays and Affymetrix mRNA expression data. HER2 status was scored as negative (immunohistochemistry 0) or low (immunohistochemistry 1 + or 2 + without amplification). We associated HER2 status with several clinicopathologic characteristics, gene-expression data and survival, stratified for estrogen receptor (ER) status. Overall, breast cancers were scored as HER2- (n = 429) or HER2low (n = 100). Within the ER+ cohort (n = 305), no significant associations were found between the HER2 groups and clinicopathologic features. However, HER2low tumors showed several differentially expressed genes compared to HER2- cases, including genes that are associated with worse outcome and depletion of immunity. In ER- cases (n = 224), HER2low status was significantly associated with increased regional nodal positivity, lower density of tumor infiltrating lymphocyte and a lower protein expression of Ki-67 and EGFR compared to HER2- cases. After multivariate analysis, only density of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes remained significantly associated with HER2low status (P = 0.035). No difference in survival was observed between HER2low and HER2- patients, neither in the ER+ nor ER- cohort. In conclusion, our data suggests that HER2low breast cancer is associated with a lower immune response compared to HER2- breast cancer.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.