Open AccessMeasurement of c‐ erb b‐2 proteins in sera from patients with carcinomas and in breast tumor tissue cytosols: Correlation with serum tumor markers and membrane‐bound oncoprotein
Author(s) -
Wu James T.,
Astill Mark E.,
Gagon Shane D.,
Bryson Lynn
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
journal of clinical laboratory analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.536
H-Index - 50
eISSN - 1098-2825
pISSN - 0887-8013
DOI - 10.1002/jcla.1860090303
Subject(s) - breast tumor , pathology , correlation , ca 15 3 , microbiology and biotechnology , chemistry , biology , cancer research , medicine , breast cancer , cancer , ca15 3 , geometry , mathematics
Using a commercial kit with antibodies against the ectodomain of c‐ erb B‐2 protein, we detected c‐ erb B‐2 immunoreactivity in human serum. We found that the percentages of patients with elevated serum c‐ erb B‐2 immunoreactivities were 35, 21, and 9% in breast, prostate, and ovarian carcinoma, respectively. The majority of the elevated immunoreactivities were associated with sera containing highly elevated tumor markers with the highest in breast carcinoma (35%) and lowest in ovarian cancer (9%). Excellent correlations were also observed between the serum levels of c‐ erb B‐2 immunoreactivity and the dominant tumor markers in serial specimens from individual cancer patients. We could also detect the c‐ erb B‐2 immunoreactivity in the cytosols prepared from the breast tumor tissue for estrogen and progesterone receptor (ER&PgR) measurements using the same commercial kit for serum studies, and the intact c‐ erb B‐2 oncoprotein (p 185) in the extracts of the tissue membrane fractions with a different kit designed for tissue extract. The level of c‐ erb B‐2 immunoreactivity in the cytosol from 124 human breast tumor specimens had an excellent correlation with the cell membrane concentrations of p 185 (γ = 0.89). Most of the elevated cytosol c‐ erb B‐2 immunoreactivities were also found to associate with breast tumor specimens containing low concentrations of ER&PgR. It appears that measuring the c‐ erb B‐2 immunoreactivity potentially could be used as a prognostic marker without performing tissue biopsies and also as a serum tumor marker for managing cancer patients.©1995 wiley‐Liss, inc.