Abstract PO4-26-08: Prevalence of HER2-low and IHC &gt;0 to &lt; 1+ in breast cancer and its concordance between historical and rescored results: a multi-center, retrospective study in China
Authors: Lv Hong , Yue Junqiu , Zhang Qingfu , Xu Fangping , Li Jianming , Kong Lingfei , Gao Peng , Zhang Guanjun , Yang Haifeng , Nie Xiu , Yang Wen-Tao 
Published: May 2024

Background:

With Trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd) changing the anti-HER2 treatment paradigm, HER2-low (defined as IHC2+/ISH- and IHC1+) breast cancer patients have emerged as a new targetable population. The lower threshold for HER2 expression that can benefit from HER2-directed antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) is still being investigated, such as HER2 immunohistochemistry (IHC) &gt;0 to &lt; 1+ (defined as IHC 0 with incomplete and faint staining in ≤10% of tumor cells) in the DESTINY-Breast06 trial. Accurate determination of HER2 scores has become a critical topic in clinical discussions, given its clinical relevance to HER2-directed treatment strategies. Hence, we conduct this study (HER2-PATH, NCT05203458) to evaluate the distribution of HER2 status including HER2 IHC &gt;0 to &lt; 1+ in Chinese patients with breast cancer. Concordance between rescored and historical results was also analyzed.

Methods:

A retrospective study was conducted in breast cancer patients who underwent surgery at 10 sites in China between July 2021 and July 2022. Archived HER2 IHC slides from these patients were subjected to rescoring by a review committee comprising two readers and one adjudicator. The two readers independently evaluated each slide blinded to the historical scores. If their results matched, the recorded outcome was considered final. In cases of disagreement, the adjudicator made the final judgment. All slides were stained using Ventana 4B5 and scored following the ASCO/CAP 2018 guidelines, including the addition of the IHC &gt;0&lt; 1+ as defined in the DESTINY-Breast06 trial. The prevalence of the rescored HER2 status was calculated, and the concordance between the historical and rescored HER2 status was assessed using the Cohen's Kappa coefficient.

Results:

A total of 2868 patients were included in the analysis. The rescored results categorized 682 (23.8%) patients as HER2 IHC 0, 871 (30.4%) patients as IHC 1+, 800 (27.9%) patients as IHC 2+, and 515 (18.0%) patients as IHC 3+. The rates of HER2-positive, HER2-low, and HER2 IHC 0 (including HER2 null and HER2 IHC &gt;0 to &lt; 1+) were 21.8%, 54.3% and 23.9%, respectively. Notably, the prevalence of HER2-low was numerically higher in the HR-positive subgroup compared to the HR-negative subgroup (60.2% vs 30.6%). Furthermore, the prevalence of HER2 IHC &gt;0 to &lt; 1+ and HER2 null was 10.6% and 13.2% among all patients, respectively. Among the HR-positive subgroup, the prevalence of HER2 IHC &gt;0 to &lt; 1+ was 10.9%, while the rate was 9.1% among the HR-negative subgroup. Overall, there was an 83.1% concordance between the historical and rescored results for HER2 IHC scores. The concordance rate for IHC 1+ was numerically lower (74.5%) compared to IHC 0 (85.2%), IHC 2+ (81.4%), and IHC 3+ (98.6%). However, considering that 12.0% of IHC 1+ patients turned into IHC 2+ with limited impact on HER2-low diagnosis, the concordance rate for HER2-low remained as 91.6%.

Conclusion:

HER2-low prevalence in Chinese breast cancer patients was found to be consistent with global data, while additional 10.6% of patients were identified as HER2 IHC &gt;0 to &lt; 1+, which is currently being investigated in a randomized controlled trial comparing T-DXd with SoC. To our knowledge, this is the first study to report the prevalence of HER2-low, including HER2 IHC &gt;0 to &lt; 1+, in the Chinese breast cancer population based on rescored results. The concordance of HER2-low between the historical and rescored results was 91.6%, indicating that most cases could be reproducibly classified.

Table: Rescored HER2 Expression Level

Citation Format: Hong Lv, Junqiu Yue, Qingfu Zhang, Fangping Xu, Jianming Li, Lingfei Kong, Peng Gao, Guanjun Zhang, Haifeng Yang, Xiu Nie, Wen-Tao Yang. Prevalence of HER2-low and IHC &gt;0 to &lt; 1+ in breast cancer and its concordance between historical and rescored results: a multi-center, retrospective study in China [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 PO4-26-08.