Monitoring expression of HER-2 on circulating epithelial cells in patients with advanced breast cancer
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- Published online on: November 1, 2002 https://doi.org/10.3892/ijo.21.5.1111
- Pages: 1111-1117
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Abstract
Nineteen breast cancer patients with measurable metastatic disease who were starting an initial or new line of therapy were evaluated for circulating epithelial cells (CECs) a minimum of 4 times over the course of treatment. In 7 of the 10 CEC+ patients, HER-2 expression was detected on the CECs. CECs expressing HER-2 varied among patients and in serial samples from the same patient including a shift from HER-2- to HER-2+ CECs. These results demonstrate that it is possible to quantify receptors essential for rationally designed therapy using CECs and that reliance on the immunophenotype of the primary tumor can be misleading.
