Clinicopathological characteristics and prognostic factors of breast cancer with low HER-2 expression
ZHANG Zi-ran
YANG Yi
XIA Guang-fa
WANG Jie
Abstract：Objective To investigate the clinical and pathological features of breast cancer with low human epi-dermal growth factor receptor 2(HER-2)expression and its influence on patient prognosis,aiming to provide better indi-vidualized treatment for patients with low HER-2 expression.Methods A retrospective collection of HER-2-nega-tive breast cancer patients was conducted,categorizing them into two groups based on the degree of HER-2 expression:low HER-2 expression and HER-2-zero expression breast cancer.A comparison of clinical and pathological character-istics and prognosis relationships was made between the two groups.Results A total of 762 HER-2-negative breast cancer patients were collected,including 525 patients with low HER-2 expression and 237 patients with HER-2-zero expression.In hormone receptor(HR)-positive breast cancer patients,univariate analysis showed significant differences in tumor diameter,histological grade,and Ki67 index compared to the HER-2 grouping(all P＜0.05).In triple-neg-ative breast cancer(TNBC)patients,significant differences in axillary lymph node status and histological grade were ob-served compared to the HER-2 grouping(all P＜0.05).Binary logistic regression analysis found that in HR-positive breast cancer patients,only tumor diameter was an independent influencing factor for HER-2 low-expression breast cancer(P＜0.05).Regardless of HR status,there was no statistically significant difference in disease-free survival(DFS)and overall survival(OS)after surgery between patients with HER-2 low expression and HER-2-zero expres-sion breast cancer(all P＞0.05).Cox regression analysis of factors that may affect DFS and OS in HR-positive breast cancer and TNBC patients found that only tumor diameter and Ki67 index were independent influencing factors for DFS in HR-positive breast cancer patients(all P＜0.05).The remaining univariate analysis results showed no statistically sig-nificant differences(all P＞0.05).Conclusion Breast cancer with low HER-2 expression exhibits distinct clinical and pathological characteristics from breast cancer with HER-2-zero expression,but it cannot be considered an independent molecular subtype.
Keywords：breast cancerhuman epidermal growth factor receptor 2 low expressionclinicopathological charac-teristicstargeted therapy
Publication Date：2023-12-28
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：7( 1472-1478 )