HER1-4 protein concentrations in normal breast tissue from breast cancer patients are expressed by the same profile as in the malignant tissue
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Dorte Aa. Olsen
Abstract
Background: The epidermal growth factor receptor HER2 is overexpressed or amplified in 25%–30% of patients with breast cancer. The mechanism behind HER2 amplification is unknown, but may be a patho-physiological phenomenon caused by continuous stimulation and activation of the HER1-4 system. We have mapped the protein concentrations of HER1-4 in breast cancer tissue, autologous reference tissue, normal breast tissue and serum samples, to see whether non-cancer cells from these patients express a protein profile indicating general activation.
Methods: Tissue samples from malignant and adjacent normal breast tissue (autologous reference tissue) were collected from 118 women consecutively admitted for surgical treatment of breast cancer. In addition, 26 samples of normal breast tissue were collected from healthy women having breast reduction surgery. The tissue samples were homogenized and the proteins extracted. The tissue and serum concentrations of HER1-4 were determined quantitatively using a commercially available enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method.
Results: HER1 was down regulated in cancer tissue when compared to autologous reference tissue (p=8×10−6), while HER2 (p<10−7) and HER3 (p=3×10−5) were up regulated. Comparing autologous reference tissue with normal tissue showed down regulation of HER1 (p=0.122) and up regulation of HER2 (p=10−6), HER3 (p<10−7) and HER4 (p<10−7). Furthermore, we observed that correlations between the receptor combinations HER1-2, HER1-3 and HER1-4 were maintained from normal breast tissue to autologous reference breast tissue, but were lost in cancer tissue.
Conclusions: We suggest that these findings indicate that breast cancer is a systemic disease where the HER1-4 system in autologous reference tissue is continuously activated, thus favoring the subsequent development of cancer.
Clin Chem Lab Med 2009;47:977–84.
©2009 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York
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Articles in the same Issue
- Editorial
- Hemolysis index: quality indicator or criterion for sample rejection?
- Review
- Neutrophil CD64: a diagnostic marker for infection and sepsis
- Genetics and Molecular Diagnostics
- Chromosome 9p21 polymorphism is associated with myocardial infarction but not with clinical outcome in Han Chinese
- Differential expression of microRNAs in the placentae of Chinese patients with severe pre-eclampsia
- Clinical, biochemical, and genetic analysis of a Korean neonate with hereditary tyrosinemia type 1
- General Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
- Multicenter evaluation of the hemolysis index in automated clinical chemistry systems
- Haemolysis index – an estimate of preanalytical quality in primary health care
- Evaluation of the Innovance D-DIMER analytical performance
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- Variation of barrier permeability for albumin and immunoglobulin G influx into cerebrospinal fluid
- Anti-citrullinated protein antibody and rheumatoid factor in patients with end-stage renal disease
- Reference Values and Biological Variations
- Quality of interpretative commenting on common clinical chemistry results in the Asia-Pacific region and Africa
- Analysis and interpretation of drug testing results from patients on chronic pain therapy: a clinical laboratory perspective
- Cancer Diagnostics
- HER1-4 protein concentrations in normal breast tissue from breast cancer patients are expressed by the same profile as in the malignant tissue
- Comparison of fifteen immunoassays for the measurement of serum MUC-1/CA 15-3 in breast cancer patients
- Serum levels of matrix metalloproteinase-2 and -9 and conventional tumor markers (CEA and CA 19-9) in patients with colorectal and gastric cancers
- Unstimulated high sensitive thyroglobulin measurement predicts outcome of differentiated thyroid carcinoma
- Relationship of serum antioxidant micronutrients and sociodemographic factors to cervical neoplasia: a case-control study
- Letters to the Editor
- Clinical efficacy of two cardiac troponin I assays
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