lentivirus bound to/targeted by herceptin used 2 kill herceptin resistant brst cancer
 

Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2010 Mar 13. [Epub ahead of print]
Presence of Foxp3 expression in tumor cells predicts better survival in HER2-overexpressing breast cancer patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
Ladoire S, Arnould L, Mignot G, Coudert B, Rébé C, Chalmin F, Vincent J, Bruchard M, Chauffert B, Martin F, Fumoleau P, Ghiringhelli F.

Department of Medical Oncology, Centre Regional de Lutte Contre le Cancer Georges François Leclerc, Dijon, France.
The Forkhead Box Protein 3 is highly expressed not only in regulatory T cells, but also in tumor cells, acting as a transcriptional repressor of breast oncogenes including HER2. We investigated the prognostic significance of Foxp3 expression in cancer cells in a large cohort of patients with HER2-overexpressing breast carcinoma treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Foxp3-positive tumor cells were detected by immunohistochemistry in 103 patients with primary invasive HER2-overexpressing breast carcinoma, and treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy, with or without trastuzumab. Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox regression model were used to assess relapse-free and overall survival, respectively, and according to the presence or the absence of Foxp3 expression in tumor cells. Breast cancer cells were Foxp3+ in 57% of tumors. Foxp3 expression in breast cancer cells was associated with better relapse-free (P = 0.005) and overall survival (P = 0.03). By multivariate analysis, the presence of Foxp3+ tumor cells produced an independent prognostic factor for both better relapse-free (P = 0.006) and overall survival (P = 0.03). These findings indicate that the presence of Foxp3+ tumor cells represents a new independent prognostic factor of improved outcome in HER2-overexpressing breast carcinoma, which could help identify high-risk patients for additional therapies after neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

PMID: 20229175

Re: lentivirus bound to/targeted by herceptin used 2 kill herceptin resistant brst ca
 

This looks like an interesting way to test biopsies for Herceptin benefit.

Any idea what the stats mean? How strong a correlation?

Is there a readily available Foxp3 biopsy test?