HER2 Equivocal - Herceptin needed?

hlya

Hi, all,

In the biopsy report, if the HER2 is Equivocal (numeric score 2/3), Gene status: Amplified Her-2/CEP 17 ratio: 4.33/1.52=2.8

Would the HER-2 need to be re-tested until it's either negative or positive? Or if it stays this way after surgery, would herceptin treatment be needed?

Thanks

Tinyfrog

After excision, I had repeated HER2 equivocal and they kept running more and sophisticated tests (4 of them) that took 4 weeks. And finally the tumor board met and decided to go with HER2+. I just got a 2nd opinion after 9 months of treatment, and asked them to check for tumor heterogenity - meaning different parts of a tumor could give different results. There were so many things that didn't add up - like the KI-67 was only 7% and should be higher with HER2+. Yup, the new pathologist sliced off a different piece of the tumor and it was very strong HER2 and KI-67 was 30%.
How large is your tumor? If it is really big, and they were thinking about doing chemo before surgery to shrink it, then they would have to do as you say, get it re-tested and decide either way. If not, they should retest everything on the full tumor after excision, and plan treatment from there.

hlya

Hi, Tinyfrog,

That's my friend's daughter's tumor, she is only 20's and she might need to do chemo anyway, just not sure about Herceptin.

She just finished the surgery and the path report will be out in 2 weeks.

Thanks for information