Open Access

Circulating HER‑2 mRNA in the peripheral blood as a potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarker in females with breast cancer

  • Authors:
    • Yanlin Wu
    • Qiping Meng
    • Zhixue Yang
    • Lili Shi
    • Rongkuan Hu
    • Peizhuo Zhang
    • Jinrong Wei
    • Jie Ren
    • Bingjing Leng
    • Dong Xu
    • Guo‑Qin Jiang
  • View Affiliations

  • Published online on: July 5, 2018     https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2018.9091
  • Pages: 3726-3734
  • Copyright: © Wu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License.

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Abstract

Breast cancer is a prevalent malignant cancer worldwide, and a lack of defined biomarkers for early prognostication contributes to its high associated mortality rate, especially in human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER‑2)‑positive breast cancer. In the present study, HER‑2 mRNA levels in patients were detected prior to surgery and during neoadjuvant chemotherapy to explore its potential diagnostic and prognostic value. Blood samples were collected from 70 patients with breast cancer, including 50 HER‑2‑negative and 20 HER‑2‑positive patients, prior to and following surgery (postoperative, n=13; neoadjuvant chemotherapy, n=5); the control group included 35 samples from healthy individuals. The relative mRNA level of HER‑2 in blood was determined by one‑step reverse transcription‑quantitative polymerase chain reaction. HER‑2 expression curves of measurements taken during neoadjuvant chemotherapy were compared with the tumor size. A significant difference in the blood HER‑2 mRNA level was observed between healthy women and patients with breast cancer (P<0.0001). A cutoff value of 1.512 was established for the circulating HER‑2 level in healthy subjects based on the upper 95% confidence interval value of samples from the control group. The level of HER‑2 mRNA in blood was associated with the HER‑2 status, Ki‑67 expression, and lymphovascular invasion in primary tumor tissue samples; however, there was no association with the lymph node status, tumor stage, tumor grade, tumor size, patient age, estrogen or progesterone receptor status of the primary tumor. HER‑2 mRNA levels were associated with the response rate, as determined by primary tumor size, in patients who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy. In conclusion, baseline and early changes in peripheral blood HER‑2 mRNA indicated that HER‑2 mRNA may be a potential diagnostic biomarker for breast cancer and a prognostic marker for predicting the efficacy of neoadjuvant therapy.
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September-2018
Volume 16 Issue 3

Print ISSN: 1792-1074
Online ISSN:1792-1082

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Spandidos Publications style
Wu Y, Meng Q, Yang Z, Shi L, Hu R, Zhang P, Wei J, Ren J, Leng B, Xu D, Xu D, et al: Circulating HER‑2 mRNA in the peripheral blood as a potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarker in females with breast cancer. Oncol Lett 16: 3726-3734, 2018
APA
Wu, Y., Meng, Q., Yang, Z., Shi, L., Hu, R., Zhang, P. ... Jiang, G. (2018). Circulating HER‑2 mRNA in the peripheral blood as a potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarker in females with breast cancer. Oncology Letters, 16, 3726-3734. https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2018.9091
MLA
Wu, Y., Meng, Q., Yang, Z., Shi, L., Hu, R., Zhang, P., Wei, J., Ren, J., Leng, B., Xu, D., Jiang, G."Circulating HER‑2 mRNA in the peripheral blood as a potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarker in females with breast cancer". Oncology Letters 16.3 (2018): 3726-3734.
Chicago
Wu, Y., Meng, Q., Yang, Z., Shi, L., Hu, R., Zhang, P., Wei, J., Ren, J., Leng, B., Xu, D., Jiang, G."Circulating HER‑2 mRNA in the peripheral blood as a potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarker in females with breast cancer". Oncology Letters 16, no. 3 (2018): 3726-3734. https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2018.9091