ArticleCancers2022
Can HER2 1+ Breast Cancer Be Considered as HER2-Low Tumor? A Comparison of Clinicopathological Features, Quantitative HER2 mRNA Levels, and Prognosis among HER2-Negative Breast Cancer.
Article in Cancers, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed.
- Correlation between HER2 gene copy number and immunohistochemistry categories in HER2-negative breast cancer: diagnostic utility for differentiating HER2-null, ultralow, and low tumors.Journal of pathology and translational medicine · 2026Article
- HER2-Low Breast Cancer at the Interface of Pathology and Technology: Toward Precision Management.Biomedicines · 2025Review
- 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
- Overexpression of cytoplasmic poly(A)-binding protein 1 as a biomarker for the prognosis and selection of postoperative regimen in breast cancer.Clinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico · 2025Article
- Current status and challenges in HER2 IHC assessment: scoring survey results in Japan.Breast cancer research and treatment · 2025Article
- Exploring the heterogeneity of HER2 gene status and expression in non-positive breast cancer patients: insights from immunohistochemistry and fluorescence in situ hybridization.Diagnostic pathology · 2025Article
- Integrating genomic mutations and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes improves prediction of response to trastuzumab-based adjuvant therapy in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer.Cancer drug resistance (Alhambra, Calif.) · 2025Article
- Article
- A gene expression-based classifier for HER2-low breast cancer.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Deciphering HER2-low breast cancer (BC): insights from real-world data in early stage breast cancer.Therapeutic advances in medical oncology · 2024Article
- The effect of low HER2 expression on treatment outcomes in metastatic hormone receptor positive breast cancer patients treated with a combination of a CDK4/6 inhibitor and endocrine therapy: A multicentric retrospective study.Breast (Edinburgh, Scotland) · 2023Article
- The impact of HER2-low status on response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in clinically HER2-negative breast cancer.Clinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico · 2023Article
- Discordance of HER2-Low between Primary Tumors and Matched Distant Metastases in Breast Cancer.Cancers · 2023Article
- Review
- HER2-Low Status Is Not Accurate in Breast Cancer Core Needle Biopsy Samples: An Analysis of 5610 Consecutive Patients.Cancers · 2022Article
- Association of Oncotype-DX HER2 Single Gene Score With HER2 Expression Assessed by Immunohistochemistry in HER2-low Breast Cancer.Cancer diagnosis & prognosisArticle
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5 authors.
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Abstract
Background: Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-low tumor is a new entity defined as HER2 immunohistochemistry (IHC) 1+ or 2+/fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH)-negative. We aimed to evaluate whether HER2 mRNA levels tested by quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) could better define HER2-low tumors. Patients and methods: Consecutive breast cancer patients with hormonal receptor-positive, HER2-negative diseases, and HER2 mRNA results were included. Clinicopathologic features, HER2 mRNA expression level, and prognosis were compared among HER2 0, 1+ and 2+/FISH− groups. Concordance of the HER2 category between qRT-PCR and IHC/FISH was analyzed for each group. Results: 2296 patients were included: 368 (16.0%) HER2 0, 911 (39.7%) 1+, and 1017 (44.3%) 2+/FISH− tumors. HER2 1+ cases shared similarities with HER2 0 tumors in terms of clinicopathologic features (all p > 0.05), whereas IHC 2+/FISH− cases were less often non-IDC (p = 0.045), node-negative (p = 0.044), and Ki-67 < 14% (p <0.001). The mRNA expression was similar between HER2 0 and 1+ cases (p = 0.063), and both were lower than 2+/FISH− cases (p < 0.001). A poor concordance rate was found between IHC/FISH and qRT-PCR for HER2 0 and HER2-low cases (Cohen’s kappa 0.126, p < 0.001). No survival difference was observed among these groups, whether stratified by HER2 IHC/FISH status or mRNA level (all p > 0.05). Conclusions: HER2 1+ cases had similar clinicopathological features to HER2 0 breast cancers, and both were different from HER2 2+/FISH− cases. HER2 mRNA levels were comparable between HER2 0 and 1+ tumors, and both were significantly lower than IHC 2+/FISH− tumors. Neither IHC nor qRT-PCR may be optimal to quantify HER2-low expression, especially for HER2 1+ patients.
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