Chromogenic in situ Hybridization Compared with Real Time Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction to Evaluate HER2/neu Status in Breast Cancer

Abstract

Background and objective: The assessment of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) status has become of great importance in the diagnosis of breast cancer. The aim of this study was to investigate the diagnostic value of quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) and Chromogenic In Situ Hybridization (CISH) to assess HER2 status of biopsy specimens. Methods: To elucidate the status of HER2 gene amplification, biopsies of breast carcinoma from 120 patients with 2+ IHC status were analyzed by qPCR and CISH. Results: The results of the two experiments were compared, and it was depicted that the concordance rate between CISH and qPCR assays was 88.1%.The quantification of HER2 gene with CISH and qPCR showed that there was a significant correlation (p value= 0.0001 and r= 0.808). Conclusion: The results of this research support the idea that qPCR is a precise and reproducible technique, which can be employed as a supplementary method to evaluate HER2 status.

Keywords

• cish
• real-time qpcr
• her2
• breast cancer