I saved this a while ago. I am out of my depth but I suppose it helps answer half of the question.
Interestingly the status of the eigth person referred to is not given.
It is clearly a highly significant issue for those potentially vulnerable.
RB
http://www.cancerlineuk.net/news/7910.aspx
ABSTRACT
Testing secondary tumours that have spread to various areas of the body for a protein called HER-2 may help identify the most effective treatment for some women with advanced breast cancer, results of an Israeli study suggest.
However, Dr Jamal Zidan, from the Sieff Government Hospital in Safed, and colleagues have found that not all secondary tumours have the same biological makeup as the original breast cancer, suggesting that some women with breast cancer that has spread to other areas of the body are not receiving the most effective treatment for their condition.
For the study, the researchers assessed HER-2 levels in the primary and secondary tumours of 58 women with advanced breast cancer.
They found that eight of the women had primary and secondary tumours that were biologically different. Of these eight women, seven had primary breast tumours that were negative for the HER-2 protein, while their secondary tumours were positive for the protein.
As a result, four of these women were treated with trastuzumab in addition to chemotherapy, and three responded to the treatment having initially failed to respond to chemotherapy alone.