“”IHC 0,1+ and 2+ FISH negative were regarded as negative while IHC 3+ or 2+ FISH positive were PRN1371 order regarded as positive.

Conversely, HER2 positive breast tumors appear to be, as expected, less differentiated and of higher stage more frequently than negative ones (Table 3). In accordance with literature data, 6 out of 9 (66.6%) HER2 positive while only 9 out 27 (33.3%) HER2 negative patients respectively responded to docetaxel treatment and this difference was significant (Table 3). Confirmatory results were obtained by student-T test on mean FISH values between responders vs not-responders patients. In fact, responder group showed significantly higher mean FISH values than not-responder (8.53 ± 10.21 vs 2.50 ± 4.12, p = 0.027). All HER2-positive patients received trastuzumab in combination with docetaxel while

HER2-negative ones were treated with docetaxel with a known influence on and response rate and outcome. To shrink the possible treatment-related bias we test the FISH value difference between docetaxel responders and not-responder in HER2-negative subgroup (n = 27) so removing trastuzumab treatment-related bias. Taking into account the smaller sample size and the lower FISH values (< 2), we found a non-statistically significant difference in mean FISH value with responders patients having higher values (1.64 ± 0.157 vs 1.38 ± 0.146; p = ns). We also performed the same analysis GSK126 research buy in FISH-positive group (11 pts all receiving docetaxel plus trastuzumab) MTMR9 and we observed also in this small subgroup a similar behaviour (16.86 ± 9.78 vs 9.85 ± 10.53; responders vs not-responders; p = 0.18 ns). Table 3 HER2 expression in relation to main tumor cheracteristics and treatment response   HER2 expression”"   Total Low High p value Age            < 55 yrs 18 13 5 n.s.    ≥55 yrs 18 14 4   ER expression

           Negative 14 10 4 n.s.    Positive 22 17 5   PgR expression            Negative 13 9 4 n.s.    Positive 23 18 5   Grading #            G2 21 18 3 0.05    G3 15 8 7   Stage*°            I-IIA 17 16 1 0.003    IIB-III 16 8 8   Ki67            Negative 22 18 4 n.s.    Positive 14 9 5   Treatment response            CR+PR 15 9 6 0.046    SD+PD 21 18 3   “”IHC 0, 1+ and 2+ FISH negative were regarded as negative while IHC 3+ or 2+ FISH positive were regarded as positive. # According to Elston and Ellis classification (see text for complete reference). *According to UICC-TNM classification of malignant tumours, sixth edition 2002. °At initial diagnosis time. n.s. = not significant; CR = complete response; PR = partial response; SD = stable disease; PD = disease progression. Mean TTP (positive vs negative: 7.9 ± 8.1 vs 9.8 ± 9.4 months; p = 0.18 ns) and OS (positive vs negative: 18.1 ± 11.7 vs 21.2 ± 12.1 months; p = 0.12 ns) showed a only modest trend towards significance with HER2 positive patients having worse prognosis.