[Study of c-erbB-2 expression in breast neoplasms]

A monoclonal antibody, NCL-CB11, raised against a synthetic peptide from the predicted sequence of the c-erbB-2 protein has been used immunohistochemically in a retrospective study of formalin-fixed paraffin embedded breast neoplasm biopsies. Sixty-five out of 115 infiltrating ductal carcinoma, eleven out of 15 intraductal carcinoma and seventeen out of 22 mammary Paget's diseases exhibited positive membrane staining, indicating amplification of the gene in these tumours. In infiltrating ductal carcinoma, there was a positive correlation between c-erbB-2 overexpression and axillary lymph node metastasis as well as between the overexpression and the number of mitotic figures. These results suggest that c-erbB-2 expression might be used as a predictive marker for the worse prognosis of breast carcinoma. The significance of c-erbB-2 expression in other malignant tumours and benign lesions is also discussed.