Her2 status

Ditto. I am +1 and considered negative.



C-Babe

I was 2+ the last time I had tissue biopsied. If there is any question they send the tissue for a FISH test - a more comprehensive test for HER2 expression or amplification. When my tissue was sent for the FISH test it came back "non-amplified" (or negative). My guess is that 1+ is most likely Her/2 negative. Check with your onc.



Jeanne

I'm her2++ you must be +++ to be a true her2 positive.  They have tested me multiple time because they were convinced that my breast cancer is her2 or I have Her2 and triple neg at the same time.  It always come back at the same old stuff.

My local doc would like me to be treated with the Her2 drugs since nothing else seems to work for me.  They were doing this in a trial for a while than stop for some reason.

Living in hope,

Flalady

There are 2 main methods used for HER2 testing:

immunohistochemistry (IHC)

and

fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH):

IHC is more widely available, cheaper but also less reliable than FISH. IHC results may also vary slightly from lab to lab.

IHC shows how much of the HER2 protein is present in the tumour sample. The HER2 level is graded from 0 to 3+

* 0-1+ = normal level = HER2 negative

* 2+ = moderate amount = further testing should be done (FISH)

* 3+ = higher than normal level = HER2 positive

FISH measures the amount of the HER2neu gene in each cell. This gene is responsible for the overproduction of the HER2 protein.

FISH results are either negative (= normal levels) or positive (excessive amounts, sometimes called gene amplification).