Evaluation of immunohistochemistry and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay for HER-2/neu expression in breast carcinoma
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Published on: May 9, 2025
Rani James1, K Thriveni, Girija Ramaswamy
1Department of Biochemistry, Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology, Bangalore, 560029 India.
Abstract:
HER-2 is overexpressed in approximately 20-30% of invasive Breast Cancer. ECD of the HER-2 protein is frequently cleaved and released into the circulation, where it can be detected by ELISA in up to 45% of patients with metastatic breast cancer. The objective of our study was to compare the current methods for the detection of HER-2 protein. Tissue HER-2 levels were studied in 100 breast cancer patients by IHC and compared with serum HER-2 levels by ELISA. IHC frequency was 29%. Serum HER-2 ECD was positive in 42% of patients. A statistically significant correlation was observed. HER-2 detected by IHC correlates significantly with serum HER-2 levels detected by ELISA. Thus, ELISA is a reliable and economical tool to assess the HER-2 status in tumors, when breast tissue sample is not available.
