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ABSTRACT
Aim: To shed light on the clinical role of HER2 status in serum as extracellular domain (ECD) and corresponding circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in metastatic breast cancer patients. Methods: 68 patients were analyzed. Serum HER2 was determined by ADVIA Centaur® Serum HER2 test. CellSearch System was performed for CTC quantification. Results: HER2 was overexpressed in 21 primary tumors. In total, 19 patients had ECD >15 ng/ml (the cut-off used), 48 patients had at least one CTC. ECD positivity was associated with CTC number (p = 0.01), HER2-positive CTC (p = 0.01) and the ratio HER2-positive CTC/total CTC (p = 0.02). ECD was not associated with survival. Conclusion: ECD in combination with HER2 CTC status would deserve further investigation in larger series for addressing its putative prognostic relevance.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Siemens Healthcare (NY, USA) for the immunoassay analyzer provided.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.
Ethical conduct of research
The authors state that they have obtained appropriate institutional review board approval or have followed the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki for all human or animal experimental investigations. In addition, for investigations involving human subjects, informed consent has been obtained from the participants involved.