HER2 Support Group Forums - View Single Post

Lani · 09-14-2007, 05:32 AM

as that her2+ bc is or is not heritable are all oversimplifications as we do not understand it well enough to draw such absolute conclusions. There are some who feel every tumor in every patient is different from every tumor in every other patient, but there is so much heterogeneity in her2+ breast cancer that even those who are trying to divide breast cancer into molecular subtypes based on genes over and underexpressed based on microarray analysis separate those that are her2+ER- and are unsure where to classify those that are her2+ER+ and think that some her2+ER- do not belong with the rest.

Just as one should not lump all breast cancer together as it does not all respond the same to the same treatments (sometiing which has been done in the past as they did not have the knowledge to separate out those types which behaved differently and needed different treatments) lumping all her2+ breast cancers together and deciding whether or not they are hereditary, or respond to green tea derivatives or metastasize to the brain only after metastasizing elsewhere or other generalizations assume we understand the disease and its subtypes better than we do.

Some her2+ breast cancers are BRCA2+ (not many, but some are) and those appear inheritable. Some Her2+ (especially ER+) breast cancers
may be due to FOXP3 but we have no data yet as to how many of them are.

Until research money and interest are spent on retrieving old pathologic specimens of the affected relatives of her2+ breast cancer patients and going back and measuring her2 levels, this will be very difficult to figure out.

At a June conference on the Biological Basis of Breast Cancer I asked a Harvard researcher studying BRCA1/2 breast cancer what it would take to
even start to figure this out (as I had asked a City of Hope researcher whose poster on BRCA1/2 BREAST cancer at San Antonio prompted me to ask the question), and he declared that they needed to feel assured they would have large amounts of speciments/data and funding before they would even start being tempted to look at it (the City of Hope researcher was not interested at all and just brushed me off)

I have posted on the site asking for those with family histories of breast cancer to post whether any other family member's bc was her2+ but have not gotten overwhelming response.

I did graduate work in medical genetics over 32 years ago and haven't been involved in the field since so I am certainly not claiming any expertise...

My extensive reading just reinforces my understanding that what we don't know exceeds what we do and that generalizations which might influence
someones actions eg, whether or not they tell relatives about their breast cancer and give others a chance to be diagnosed early can be harmful

The internet can be full of lots of information--interpreting what is stated as "fact" can be difficult!

If the above is rather disjointed it is because I am suffering from 9 hours jetlag after transatlantic travel (sorry!)

09-14-2007, 05:32 AM	#6
Lani Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 4,783	I Think My Point Was Making Statements Such as that her2+ bc is or is not heritable are all oversimplifications as we do not understand it well enough to draw such absolute conclusions. There are some who feel every tumor in every patient is different from every tumor in every other patient, but there is so much heterogeneity in her2+ breast cancer that even those who are trying to divide breast cancer into molecular subtypes based on genes over and underexpressed based on microarray analysis separate those that are her2+ER- and are unsure where to classify those that are her2+ER+ and think that some her2+ER- do not belong with the rest. Just as one should not lump all breast cancer together as it does not all respond the same to the same treatments (sometiing which has been done in the past as they did not have the knowledge to separate out those types which behaved differently and needed different treatments) lumping all her2+ breast cancers together and deciding whether or not they are hereditary, or respond to green tea derivatives or metastasize to the brain only after metastasizing elsewhere or other generalizations assume we understand the disease and its subtypes better than we do. Some her2+ breast cancers are BRCA2+ (not many, but some are) and those appear inheritable. Some Her2+ (especially ER+) breast cancers may be due to FOXP3 but we have no data yet as to how many of them are. Until research money and interest are spent on retrieving old pathologic specimens of the affected relatives of her2+ breast cancer patients and going back and measuring her2 levels, this will be very difficult to figure out. At a June conference on the Biological Basis of Breast Cancer I asked a Harvard researcher studying BRCA1/2 breast cancer what it would take to even start to figure this out (as I had asked a City of Hope researcher whose poster on BRCA1/2 BREAST cancer at San Antonio prompted me to ask the question), and he declared that they needed to feel assured they would have large amounts of speciments/data and funding before they would even start being tempted to look at it (the City of Hope researcher was not interested at all and just brushed me off) I have posted on the site asking for those with family histories of breast cancer to post whether any other family member's bc was her2+ but have not gotten overwhelming response. I did graduate work in medical genetics over 32 years ago and haven't been involved in the field since so I am certainly not claiming any expertise... My extensive reading just reinforces my understanding that what we don't know exceeds what we do and that generalizations which might influence someones actions eg, whether or not they tell relatives about their breast cancer and give others a chance to be diagnosed early can be harmful The internet can be full of lots of information--interpreting what is stated as "fact" can be difficult! If the above is rather disjointed it is because I am suffering from 9 hours jetlag after transatlantic travel (sorry!)