ArticleBreast cancer (Tokyo, Japan)2023
HER2-low-positive and response to NACT and prognosis in HER2-negative non-metastatic BC.
Article in Breast cancer (Tokyo, Japan), 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pathologic response rates in HER2-low versus HER2-zero early breast cancer patients receiving neoadjuvant therapy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Breast cancer research : BCR · 2025Pooled it
- Survival outcomes in HER2-low versus HER2-zero breast cancer after neoadjuvant chemotherapy: a meta-analysis.World journal of surgical oncology · 2024Pooled it
- Salivary Metabolic Characteristics and Response to Neoadjuvant Systemic Therapy in Breast Cancer.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Focal hotspot and diffuse immune subtypes of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes: AI-powered spatial clustering classification and its clinical relevance to HER2 expression in triple-negative breast cancer.Journal of translational medicine · 2025Article
- Epigenetic determinants of an immune-evasive phenotype in HER2-low triple-negative breast cancer.NPJ precision oncology · 2025Article
- Effect of HER2-low expression on the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in triple-negative breast cancer.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- ERBB2-Low Expression by Race and Ethnicity Among Patients With Triple-Negative Breast Cancer.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- The prognostic impact of Her2 status in early triple negative breast cancer: a Turkish Oncology Group (TOG) study.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- The Prognostic Impact of HER2-Low and Menopausal Status in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer.Cancers · 2024Article
- The Modified Neo-Bioscore System for Staging Breast Cancer Treated with Neoadjuvant Therapy Based on Prognostic Significance of HER2-Low Expression.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Prognostic Impact of HER2-Low and HER2-Zero in Resectable Breast Cancer with Different Hormone Receptor Status: A Landmark Analysis of Real-World Data from the National Cancer Center of China.Targeted oncology · 2024Article
- Comparison of the pCR Rate and DFS Among Breast Cancer Patients with Different Hormone Receptor and HER2 Statuses.Breast cancer (Dove Medical Press) · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeWith the release of promising data from clinical trials of novel anti-HER2 antibody-drug conjugates, there is a new therapeutic direction in HER2-low expression breast cancer (BC). This study aims to evaluate the differences in clinicopathological characteristics of HER2-low-positive and HER2-zero BC, including response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) and prognosis.
methodsRecords of HER2-negative (immunohistochemistry [IHC] 0, + 1, or + 2 non-amplified by in situ hybridization [ISH]) patients who received NACT at our cancer center between January 2017 and December 2017 were retrospectively collected. HER2-low-positive was defined as immunohistochemistry (IHC) 1 + or IHC2 + /in-situ hybridization negative and HER2-zero was defined as IHC0. The coprimary objectives were to compare pathological complete response (pCR) and relapse-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) between the two groups. Univariate and multivariable logistic regression models and Cox-proportional hazards models were performed for analysis of the endpoints pCR, RFS, and OS.
resultsA total of 239 [84.5%] of 283 tumors were HER2-low-positive (including 132 [55.2%] HER2-1 + and 107 [44.8%] HER2-2 + /ISH non-amplified) and 44 [15.5%] were HER2-zero. Patients in the HER2-low-positive group had more commonly hormone receptor positivity than HER2-zero patients (188 [78.7%] vs. 19 [43.2%], P = 0.000), but there was no difference between HER2-1 + and HER2-2 + / ISH non-amplified (99 [75.0%] vs. 89 [83.2%], P = 0.125). HER2-zero tumors had a significantly higher pCR rate than HER2-low-positive tumors (15 [34.1%] of 44 vs. 22 [9.2%] of 239, P = 0.000). Pathological complete response was also significantly higher in HER2-zero tumors versus HER2-low-positive tumors in the hormone receptor-negative subgroup (13 [52.0%] of 25 vs. 14 [27.5%] of 51, P = 0.036), but not in the hormone receptor-positive subgroup (2 [10.5%] of 19 vs 8 [4.3%] of 188, P = 0.231). No significant difference was observed in 5-year RFS between the two groups (HR 0.577, 95% CI 0.298-1.118, P = 0.103). However, HER2-low-positive tumors showed significantly better OS than HER2-zero tumors (HR 0.280, 95% CI 0.122-0.697, P = 0.006).
conclusionsThese results suggest that HER2-low-positive tumors have specific biological characteristics according to the hormone receptor status and exhibit different responses to NACT and prognosis.
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