Open AccessuPAR and HER-2 gene status in individual breast cancer cells from blood and tissues
Author(s) -
Songdong Meng,
Debasish Tripathy,
Sanjay Shete,
Raheela Ashfaq,
Hossein Saboorian,
Barbara Haley,
Eugene P. Frenkel,
David M. Euhus,
Marilyn Leitch,
Cynthia R. Osborne,
Edward Clifford,
Steve Perkins,
Peter D. Beitsch,
Amber Khan,
Larry E. Morrison,
Dorothee Herlyn,
Leon W.M.M. Terstappen,
Natasha E. Lane,
Jianqiang Wang,
Jonathan W. Uhr
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.011
H-Index - 771
eISSN - 1091-6490
pISSN - 0027-8424
DOI - 10.1073/pnas.0608113103
Subject(s) - urokinase receptor , breast cancer , cancer research , trastuzumab , concordance , gene duplication , circulating tumor cell , cancer , plasminogen activator , medicine , biology , pathology , oncology , gene , metastasis , genetics
Overexpression of urokinase plasminogen activator system or HER-2 (erbB-2) in breast cancer is associated with a poor prognosis. HER-2 overexpression is caused by HER-2 gene amplification. The anti-HER-2 antibody trastuzumab significantly improves clinical outcome for HER2-positive breast cancer. Drugs that target the uPA system are in early clinical trials. The aims of this study were to determine whether urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR) gene amplification occurs and whether analysis of individual tumor cells (TCs) in the blood or tissue can add information to conventional pathological analysis that could help in diagnosis and treatment. Analysis of individual TCs indicates that uPAR amplification occurs in a significant portion of primary breast cancers and also circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from patients with advanced disease. There was complete concordance between touch preps (TPs) and conventional pathological examination of HER-2 and uPAR gene status in primary tumors. There was also excellent concordance of HER-2 gene status between primary tumors and CTCs provided that acquisition of HER-2 gene amplification in CTCs was taken into account. Unexpectedly, gene amplification of HER-2 and uPAR occurred most frequently in the same TC and patient, suggesting a biological bias and potential advantage for coamplification. Expression of HER-2 and uPAR in primary tumors predicted gene status in 100 and 92% of patients, respectively.