Abstract PO2-14-05: COMPARISON OF HER2 mRNA PCR LEVELS AND IMMUNOHISTOCHEMISTRY (IHC) IN HORMONE RECEPTOR POSITIVE (HR+)/HER2 NEGATIVE (HER2-) EARLY BREAST CANCER
Authors: Tejerina-Peces Julia , Amann-Arévalo Marta , Ballestín Pablo , González-Diez Beatriz , Paz-Cabezas Mateo , Pascual Alejandro , Luna Alicia de , García-Barberán Vanesa , de Sá Alfonso López , García-Sáenz Jose Angel , Moreno Fernando 
Published: May 2024

BACKGROUND IHC assays were developed to identify HER2-positive breast cancers deemed to be treated with trastuzumab-based therapies. However, these assays lack sensitivity to reliably identify tumors with low levels of HER2 protein on the cell surface. HR+/HER2-low may benefit from Trastuzumab Deruxtecan (TDxd) and therefore accurate quantification of HER2 expression levels becomes a critical issue. As a result, additional technologies are needed to achieve a quantitative and reproducible detection of HER2 in the low range expression compared with the standard IHC testing. METHODS We conducted a retrospective study of all incident stage I-II HR +/HER2- breast cancer patient whose genomic risk was assessed with the Oncotype 21 gene assay from 2009 to 2022 in Hospital Clínico San Carlos (Spain).

Local HER2 expression (IHC w/wo cerbB2 FISH) was performed in all patients according to ASCO/CAP guidelines available during the different periods. HER2 mRNA expression levels by RT-PCR were obtained from OncotypeDx patient reports.

The primary objective was to determine the distribution of HER2 mRNA levels across the different HER2 expression groups. Other objectives were to compare the clinicopathological characteristics, management and OncotypeDX Recurrence Score (RS) in the different HER2 expression groups.

Qualitative variables are presented with their frequency distribution. Quantitative variables are summarized in their mean and standard deviation (SD). Welch’s F-test ANOVA was used to measure association between the two HER2 measuring methods. RESULTS 500 early breast cancer patients with HER2 IHC 0, 1+ and 2+ (FISH negative) and HER2 mRNA expression by RT-PCR tumors were included. Among them, 169 (34%) were IHC 0, 211(42%) were IHC 1+ and 120 (24%) were IHC 2+ (FISH negative).

The distribution of clinicopathological characteristics was similar between different IHC HER2 expression groups, and the distribution of chemotherapy treatment was also similar among them (Table 1). All patients had undergone surgery, and most of them had received hormone therapy (487, 97%) and radiotherapy when indicated (375, 77%).

The mean OncotypeDx® recurrence score across HER2 IHC 0, 1, 2 showed not significant difference between groups (16,85, 17,36 and 17,89 respectively).

The mean OncotypeDx® HER2 gene score expression across the different levels of HER2 (0, 1+, 2+) determined by IHC were 9.07, 9.25 and 9.51, respectively. One-way ANOVA and Games-Howell post-hoc test revealed that differences between all the groups were significant. The ranges of HER2 gene score data for the 3 IHC groups were widely overlapped, with IQR of [8,5-9,5], [8,83-9,7] and [9,07-10] respectively. CONCLUSIONS Our data show statistically significant differences between HER2 mRNA expression levels and IHC groups. This suggests that RT-qPCR could complement the data obtained by IHC. However, the wide range and dispersion of mRNA expression within groups limits its clinical utility.

Clinicopathological characteristics and management between different IHC HER2 expression groups.

Citation Format: Julia Tejerina-Peces, Marta Amann-Arévalo, Pablo Ballestín, Beatriz González-Diez, Mateo Paz-Cabezas, Alejandro Pascual, Alicia de Luna, Vanesa García-Barberán, Alfonso López de Sá, Jose Angel García-Sáenz, Fernando Moreno. COMPARISON OF HER2 mRNA PCR LEVELS AND IMMUNOHISTOCHEMISTRY (IHC) IN HORMONE RECEPTOR POSITIVE (HR+)/HER2 NEGATIVE (HER2-) EARLY BREAST CANCER [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2023 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2023 Dec 5-9; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(9 Suppl):Abstract nr PO2-14-05.