Agrup M, Stål O, Olsen K, Wingren S
Department of Biomedicine and Surgery, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University, Sweden.
Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2000 Sep;63(1):23-9. doi: 10.1023/a:1006498721508.
Young breast cancer patients have a decreased survival rate and it has been demonstrated that young age is an independent predictor of adverse prognosis. Overexpression of c-erbB-2 protein (also known as HER-2/neu) has been shown to be a prognostic indicator in breast cancer in general and especially among patients with axillary nodal metastases. The present study was initiated to determine the prognostic significance of c-erbB-2 protein overexpression in early onset breast cancer. A population consisting of 110 young breast cancer patients, < or = 36-year-old at diagnosis, was analyzed with immunohistochemical staining for c-erbB-2 protein. Thirty patients (27%) were found to overexpress the c-erbB-2 protein. C-erbB-2 positivity was significantly associated with poor survival when all patients were included in the analysis (P = 0.002) and for patients with axillary nodal metastases (P = 0.0007). No such association was found for node-negative patients. Furthermore, the difference in prognosis in relation to c-erbB-2 among node-positive patients was maintained, when these were stratified in groups treated or not treated with adjuvant chemotherapy. The study indicates that overexpression of c-erbB-2 protein is a strong prognostic factor in young breast cancer patients with axillary nodal metastases. Moreover, the adverse prognosis associated with c-erbB-2 overexpression in node-positive patients was observed whether or not the patients had received adjuvant chemotherapy.
年轻乳腺癌患者的生存率较低，并且已经证实年轻是不良预后的独立预测因素。一般而言，尤其是在有腋窝淋巴结转移的患者中，c-erbB-2蛋白（也称为HER-2/neu）的过表达已被证明是乳腺癌的一个预后指标。本研究旨在确定c-erbB-2蛋白过表达在早发性乳腺癌中的预后意义。对110例诊断时年龄≤36岁的年轻乳腺癌患者进行了研究，采用免疫组织化学染色检测c-erbB-2蛋白。发现30例患者（27%）c-erbB-2蛋白过表达。当所有患者纳入分析时，c-erbB-2阳性与较差的生存率显著相关（P = 0.002），在有腋窝淋巴结转移的患者中也是如此（P = 0.0007）。在无淋巴结转移的患者中未发现这种关联。此外，在接受或未接受辅助化疗的分组中，淋巴结阳性患者中与c-erbB-2相关的预后差异依然存在。该研究表明，c-erbB-2蛋白过表达是有腋窝淋巴结转移的年轻乳腺癌患者的一个强有力的预后因素。此外，无论患者是否接受辅助化疗，在淋巴结阳性患者中均观察到与c-erbB-2过表达相关的不良预后。
