Roche Tissue Diagnostics, Arizona, USA.
Wexner Medical Center at The Ohio State University, Ohio, USA.
Crit Rev Oncog. 2020;25(3):233-240. doi: 10.1615/CritRevOncog.2020036150.
Development of HER2-targeted therapy drugs, particularly trastuzumab, demonstrated significant improvement of clinical outcomes among HER2 positive breast cancer patients during the last two decades. The exact biological mechanism of HER2 gene amplification occurrence remains unsolved. HER2 gene amplification and/or HER2 protein overexpression are the primary predictors for selecting invasive breast cancer patients as candidates for anti-HER2 agent-based chemotherapy protocol. However, HER2-targeted therapy is not completely successful: as it is well-documented, only one half of HER2 positive breast cancer patients achieve a pathological complete response after such a precision therapy. In the past, various HER2 drug resistance mechanisms were proposed for explaining incomplete the efficacy with anti-HER2 drugs. Recent studies suggested that HER2 intratumoral heterogeneity (ITH) determined by a concomitant HER2 gene and protein analyses are a significant primary resistance mechanism to HER2-targeted therapy. Recent discovery of undocumented "nonclassic" HER2-positive tumor cells with the amplified HER2 gene but no HER2 protein overexpression redefined HER2 ITH. The HER2 ITH consists of two groups of tumor heterogeneity subtypes: (1) genetic ITH (a mixture of HER2 negative tumor cells and classic HER2 positive tumor cells) and (2) nongenetic ITH (a mixture of classic HER2 positive tumor cells and nonclassic HER2 positive tumor cells). The mechanism underlining these nonclassic HER2 positive tumor cells with the amplified HER2 gene, but no HER2 protein overexpression, is unknown. Investigation of impaired HER2 and/or protein translation in these tumor cells could lead to a further improvement of cancer therapy by identifying new therapeutic targets for patients with HER2 ITH.
在过去的二十年中,针对 HER2 靶点的治疗药物(尤其是曲妥珠单抗)的发展,显著改善了 HER2 阳性乳腺癌患者的临床结局。HER2 基因扩增发生的确切生物学机制仍未解决。HER2 基因扩增和/或 HER2 蛋白过表达是选择 HER2 阳性浸润性乳腺癌患者作为抗 HER2 药物化疗方案候选者的主要预测指标。然而,HER2 靶向治疗并非完全成功:已有充分的文献记载,只有一半的 HER2 阳性乳腺癌患者在接受这种精准治疗后能达到病理完全缓解。过去,提出了多种 HER2 药物耐药机制来解释抗 HER2 药物疗效不完全的问题。最近的研究表明,通过同时进行 HER2 基因和蛋白分析来确定的 HER2 肿瘤内异质性(ITH)是导致 HER2 靶向治疗原发性耐药的一个重要机制。最近发现的具有扩增的 HER2 基因但无 HER2 蛋白过表达的未记录的“非经典”HER2 阳性肿瘤细胞重新定义了 HER2 ITH。HER2 ITH 由两组肿瘤异质性亚型组成:(1)遗传 ITH(HER2 阴性肿瘤细胞和经典 HER2 阳性肿瘤细胞的混合物)和(2)非遗传 ITH(经典 HER2 阳性肿瘤细胞和非经典 HER2 阳性肿瘤细胞的混合物)。这些具有扩增的 HER2 基因但无 HER2 蛋白过表达的非经典 HER2 阳性肿瘤细胞的潜在机制尚不清楚。研究这些肿瘤细胞中 HER2 受损和/或蛋白翻译的机制,可能通过确定 HER2 ITH 患者的新治疗靶点,进一步改善癌症治疗。