Today's presentation in 5th European Breast Cancer Conference 2006

Nothing new, may be, apart from the fact that they seemed to find some false positives (Or may be primary tumor was a false negative, or, even stranger , mets were Her2 positive and primary tumor not. Could that be possible?)
Well, here it is:

28 March 2006
HER2-positive CTCs predict breast cancer progression
Early-stage breast cancer patients with circulating tumor cells (CTCs) positive for HER2 gene amplification have a poorer outcome than those with CTCs lacking this marker, study findings suggest.

"Early metastasis in node-negative breast cancer indicates that breast cancer cells obviously can bypass the lymph nodes and disseminate directly hematogenously to distant organs," Pia Wülfing (University of Münster, Germany) and colleagues observe.

Hypothesizing that HER2-positive CTCs could help predict breast cancer prognosis, the team examined peripheral blood samples from 42 breast cancer patients, who were followed-up for a median of 95 months.

Despite the absence of overt metastasis in the patients' tumors, between one and eight CTCs were identified in blood samples from 48.6% of the patients.

In comparison, all seven patients with metastatic disease had evidence of CTCs in their peripheral blood, whereas none of the 32 controls without known malignancy had CTCs detected.

Importantly, both the presence and number of HER2-positive CRCs significantly correlated with both poorer disease-free survival and overall survival among the breast cancer patients without overt metastasis.

Surprisingly, the primary tumor in 12 patients with HER2-positive CTCs was found to be HER2-negative, Wülfing et al report in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.

"This study provides some evidence of a prognostic effect of HER2-positive CTCs in stage I to III breast cancer," the investigators conclude.

"Future studies have to determine the outcome of patients treated with HER2-targeting therapies with respect to HER2-positive CTC levels because it is not unlikely that high levels of HER2-positive CTCs reflect the activity of the tumor and may predict response," they suggest.



Clin Cancer Res 2006; 12: 1715–1720

http://clincancerres.aacrjournals.or...ract/12/6/1715
© 2006 CMG

I have seen reports and posted on this site of original and distant tumors expressing different characteristics, and of womens tumours changing character in ipsi and contralateral reoccurence.

This has resulted in resistant tumours responding to a different treatment when re tested.

Others have reported similar items.

A search (top rh corner) may find the posts.

RB