Cancer Management and Research (Jun 2020)
Monitoring Value of Serum HER2 as a Predictive Biomarker in Patients with Metastatic Breast Cancer
Abstract
Pengyu Zhang,1,* Jun Xiao,2,* Yingxin Ruan,3,* Zhenzhen Zhang,1 Xuejun Zhang2 1Department of Blood Transfusion, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center of Cancer, Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy, Key Laboratory of Breast Cancer Prevention and Therapy, Tianjin Medical University, Ministry of Education, Tianjin 300060, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Immunology, Key Laboratory of Educational Ministry of China, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Nephrology, General Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300052, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Xuejun ZhangDepartment of Immunology, Key Laboratory of Educational Ministry of China, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Tianjin Medical University, No. 22 Qixiangtai Road, Heping District, Tianjin 300070, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86 151 2280 0672Email [email protected]: The aim of this study was to investigate the monitoring value of serum HER2 in patients with metastatic breast cancer.Patients and Methods: We firstly evaluated the association of serum HER2 levels with tissue HER2 expression and imaging results in 420 breast cancer patients admitted into Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital between April 2016 and December 2018. Secondly, we analyzed serum HER2 levels in breast cancer patients with different metastatic degrees.Results: There is a higher correlation between serum HER2 and tissue HER2 in breast cancer patients with stage III (κ=0.670, p< 0.001) and stage IV (κ=0.464, p< 0.001). Serum HER2 levels were significantly associated with imaging results (κ=0.478, p< 0.001). The ROC curve analysis showed that serum HER2 was superior to other serum markers for predicting metastatic breast cancer. Multinomial logistic regression revealed that the patients with higher serum HER2 levels would be more likely to have breast cancer metastasis.Conclusion: Serum HER2 levels in breast cancer patients can partly reflect tissue HER2 expression and tumor imaging changes, and serum HER2 may be used as a biomarker for evaluating metastatic status in patients with breast cancer.Keywords: serum HER2, breast cancer, tumor metastasis, biomarker
