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Updated: Jun 26, 2026
Building Up a High-throughput Screening Platform to Assess the Heterogeneity of HER2 Gene Amplification in Breast Cancers
Published on: December 5, 2017
HER-2/neu amplification testing in breast cancer by Multiplex Ligation-dependent Probe Amplification: influence of
Cathy B Moelans1, Roel A de Weger, Chantal Ezendam
1Department of Pathology, University Medical Centre Utrecht, Heidelberglaan, GA Utrecht, the Netherlands. C.B.Moelans@umcutrecht.nl
Background:
Accurate assessment of HER-2/neu status is crucial for proper prognostic information and to offer direct appropriate treatment for breast cancer patients. Next to immunohistochemistry (IHC) to evaluate HER2 protein overexpression, a second line gene amplification test is generally deemed necessary for cases with equivocal protein expression. Recently, a new PCR based test, called Multiplex Ligation-dependent Probe Amplification (MLPA), was introduced as a simple and quick method to assess HER-2/neu gene amplification status in invasive breast cancer. MLPA was previously shown to correlate well with IHC and in situ hybridization (ISH), but a low tumor percentage in the tissue tested could negatively affect the accuracy of MLPA results.
Methods:
To examine this, MLPA was repeated in 42 patients after serial H&E section guided manual dissection with a scalpel and after laser microdissection of the tumor.
Results:
Both dissection techniques led to higher HER2 gene copy number ratios and thereby made MLPA more quantitative. Concordance between MLPA and ISH improved from 61% to 84% after manual microdissection and to 90% after laser microdissection.
Conclusion:
Manual and laser microdissection similarly increase the dynamic range of MLPA copy number ratios which is a technical advantage. As clinically a dichotomization between normal and amplified suffices and MLPA is relatively unsensitive to tumor content, microdissection before MLPA may not be routinely necessary but may be advisable in case of very low tumor content (
