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Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vol 26, No 5 (February 10), 2008: pp. 736-744 © 2008 American Society of Clinical Oncology. DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2007.15.4716
HER-2 and Topoisomerase II As Predictors of Response to Chemotherapy
From the Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Centre; Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital; Cancer Care; Departments of Medicine and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Toronto; Ontario, Toronto; McMaster University; Henderson Hospital; and Juravinski Cancer Centre, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Corresponding author: Kathleen I. Pritchard, MD, FRCPC, FACP, Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Centre, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, 2075 Bayview Ave, Toronto, ON M4N 3M5; e-mail: kathy.pritchard{at}sunnybrook.ca
HER2 overexpression or amplification has been shown to be associated with a poor prognostic effect in women with breast cancer. At least eight analyses based on randomized trials have examined the relationship between HER2 and the differential effect of anthracycline compared with non–anthracycline-containing regimens. Only three of these studies were sufficiently powered to show a significant interaction between HER2 and anthracycline- versus non–anthracycline-containing treatments, but because all of the study results tended to be in the same direction, it is not surprising that three recent meta-analyses of published data have suggested that anthracycline-containing regimens provide more benefit than non–anthracycline-containing regimens in women whose tumors are overexpressed or amplified (positive) for HER2. Since topoisomerase II is a known target of the anthracyclines, it has been postulated that this relationship is actually based on the proximity of HER2 to the topoisomerase II Authors disclosures of potential conflicts of interest and author contributions are found at the end of this article.
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Copyright © 2008 by the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Online ISSN: 1527-7755. Print ISSN: 0732-183X
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