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My primary bc was IHC 3+, and my most recent recurrence to right axilla was sent for FISH and came back at with a CEP-17 ratio of 4.26.
FYI, my test was performed by PhenoPath Laboratories in Seattle WA, and included these nuggets of info in the report:
"A ratio of >2 is considered positive for gene amplification. Because signal counting is performed by the Metasystems instrument, the mean number of signals refers to signals per "computer tile" rather than tumor cell. The number of cells per tile varies as a function of tumor cell density and cell size."
And this:
"...Studies in our laboratory and others demonstrate that there exists a strong correlation between amplification of the HER-2/gene detected by FISH and overexpression of the HER-2/neu gene product as determined by immunohistochemistry, although there is a small fraction of cases (3 -5%) without gene amplification but with the presence of protein overexpression..."
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