Primary and recurrent breast tumours ‘may differ in HER2 status’
Some 15% of HER2-negative primary tumours switch to HER2 low status on relapse, researchers find
Human epidermal growth factor (HER2)-negative primary breast tumours may evolve to express low HER2 upon relapse, highlighting the need to retest recurrent tumours for HER2 expression, researchers say.
“The results provide a whole new insight on how HER2-low tumours might evolve as a subgroup, possibly challenging the current dichotomy between HER2-positive and HER2-negative breast cancer,” Dr Federica Miglietta, of the University of Padua in Italy, said in a statement from the ESMO Breast Cancer Virtual Congress, where the findings were presented.
