HER2 Support Group Forums - View Single Post - finally...a basic question is being looked @:her2+ER+s have differnt relapse pattern

Lani · 12-05-2009, 09:08 AM

and pattern of metastatic spread

Cancer Chemother Pharmacol. 2009 Dec 3. [Epub ahead of print]
Patterns of relapse and metastatic spread in HER2-overexpressing breast cancer according to estrogen receptor status.
Park YH, Lee S, Cho EY, Choi YL, Lee JE, Nam SJ, Yang JH, Ahn JS, Im YH.

Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, 50 Irwon-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, 135-710, Korea.

PURPOSE: The primary aim of this study was to compare the relapse patterns of estrogen receptor (ER)-positive and ER-negative patients with HER2-overexpressing breast cancer. A secondary aim was to distinguish the preferential primary site of metastases in HER2-overexpressing breast cancer. METHODS: Out of 886 patients treated for metastatic breast cancer (MBC) between January 1995 and December 2006, 269 patients with HER2-positive tumors were identified. Of these, 198 patients with relapsed breast cancer following surgery were included in this study. Rates and patterns of relapse and metastatic spread in HER2+/ER+ and HER2+/ER- patients were analyzed. This analysis was evaluated by the validation patients' cohort of our institute prospectively. RESULTS: Median relapse-free survival was longer in the HER2+/ER+ group than in the HER2+/ER- group (32.0 vs. 19.5 months, p = 0.0012). The peak of recurrence occurred at 12 months after surgery in the HER2+/ER- patients. The peak of relapse was later and the level was lower in the HER2+/ER+ patients (66 and 78 months following surgery) than in the HER2+/ER- patients (33 and 39 months following surgery, respectively). This result was reproduced by the validation cohort with great similarity. Young age [hazard ratio (HR) 1.59, p = 0.002], TNM stage 3 (HR 1.51, p = 0.005), and ER-negativity (HR 1.68, p < 0.0001) were identified as independent risk factors for relapse. Severe bone metastasis (HR 4.48, p = 0.028) and massive hepatic metastasis (HR 5.24, p = 0.043) were identified as independent risk factors for early relapse. CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that HER2-overexpressing breast cancer displays characteristic patterns of relapse and metastatic spread depending on ER status.

PMID: 19956951

I have often warned against articles that talk about the behavior of breast cancer as if it were one entity, or putting too much value on basic science
articles on the behavior of breast cancer cell cultures made up of cell lines that are not her2+--here we see that even talking about her2+ bc as if it is one entity may be comparing apples and oranges! And it looks quite possible that there are subtypes of her2+ER+, as this abstract infers there were two peaks of recurrence within the her2+ER+s.

Still trying to access the whole article.

12-05-2009, 09:08 AM	#1
Lani Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 4,778	finally...a basic question is being looked @:her2+ER+s have differnt relapse pattern and pattern of metastatic spread Cancer Chemother Pharmacol. 2009 Dec 3. [Epub ahead of print] Patterns of relapse and metastatic spread in HER2-overexpressing breast cancer according to estrogen receptor status. Park YH, Lee S, Cho EY, Choi YL, Lee JE, Nam SJ, Yang JH, Ahn JS, Im YH. Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, 50 Irwon-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, 135-710, Korea. PURPOSE: The primary aim of this study was to compare the relapse patterns of estrogen receptor (ER)-positive and ER-negative patients with HER2-overexpressing breast cancer. A secondary aim was to distinguish the preferential primary site of metastases in HER2-overexpressing breast cancer. METHODS: Out of 886 patients treated for metastatic breast cancer (MBC) between January 1995 and December 2006, 269 patients with HER2-positive tumors were identified. Of these, 198 patients with relapsed breast cancer following surgery were included in this study. Rates and patterns of relapse and metastatic spread in HER2+/ER+ and HER2+/ER- patients were analyzed. This analysis was evaluated by the validation patients' cohort of our institute prospectively. RESULTS: Median relapse-free survival was longer in the HER2+/ER+ group than in the HER2+/ER- group (32.0 vs. 19.5 months, p = 0.0012). The peak of recurrence occurred at 12 months after surgery in the HER2+/ER- patients. The peak of relapse was later and the level was lower in the HER2+/ER+ patients (66 and 78 months following surgery) than in the HER2+/ER- patients (33 and 39 months following surgery, respectively). This result was reproduced by the validation cohort with great similarity. Young age [hazard ratio (HR) 1.59, p = 0.002], TNM stage 3 (HR 1.51, p = 0.005), and ER-negativity (HR 1.68, p < 0.0001) were identified as independent risk factors for relapse. Severe bone metastasis (HR 4.48, p = 0.028) and massive hepatic metastasis (HR 5.24, p = 0.043) were identified as independent risk factors for early relapse. CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that HER2-overexpressing breast cancer displays characteristic patterns of relapse and metastatic spread depending on ER status. PMID: 19956951 I have often warned against articles that talk about the behavior of breast cancer as if it were one entity, or putting too much value on basic science articles on the behavior of breast cancer cell cultures made up of cell lines that are not her2+--here we see that even talking about her2+ bc as if it is one entity may be comparing apples and oranges! And it looks quite possible that there are subtypes of her2+ER+, as this abstract infers there were two peaks of recurrence within the her2+ER+s. Still trying to access the whole article.