What does it mean if HER2 is negative?
Describes cells that have a small amount or none of a protein called HER2 on their surface. In normal cells, HER2 helps control cell growth.
Is HER2-negative better than positive?
HER2-positive cancer tends to be poorer in terms of prognosis than HER2-negative cancer because: It grows faster. It is more likely to spread to the lymph nodes fast. It is at least two times more likely to return than HER2-negative tumors.
Can HER2-negative Be Cured?
When you have HER2-negative advanced (metastatic) breast cancer, treatment usually focuses on managing your disease, not curing the cancer. The goal is to help you live longer and have a better quality of life. This type of cancer is most often treated with systemic therapy.
Is HER2-negative good or bad?
If breast cancer cells don’t have abnormal levels of HER2 proteins, the breast cancer is considered HER2-negative. Even if your cancer is HER2-negative, it may still be estrogen-positive or progesterone-positive. Whether or not it’s hormone-positive also affects your treatment options.
Does HER2-negative require chemo?
People with HER2-negative breast cancer may need surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, bisphosphonates, or a combination of these treatments.
Is chemo necessary for HER2-negative?
Hormonal therapy is considered the standard initial treatment for HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer that is also hormone receptor-positive, and is often given in combination with targeted therapy. However, chemotherapy may also be given. A clinical trial may also be an option for treatment at any stage.
What does ER positive and HER2-negative mean?
Breast cancer groups include: Group 1 (luminal A). This group includes tumors that are ER positive and PR positive, but negative for HER2. Luminal A breast cancers are likely to benefit from hormone therapy and may also benefit from chemotherapy.
Do you need chemo if you are HER2-negative?
Many women with hormone-positive, HER2-negative, lymph node-negative early-stage breast cancer who have intermediate risk of cancer recurrence do not need chemotherapy. The exception is that some women who are younger than 50 may benefit when chemotherapy is added to hormone therapy.
Does HER2 negative require chemo?
Is chemo necessary for HER2 negative?
Is it better to be hormone receptor-positive or negative?
Hormone receptor-positive cancers tend to grow more slowly than those that are hormone receptor-negative. Women with hormone receptor-positive cancers tend to have a better outlook in the short-term, but these cancers can sometimes come back many years after treatment.
What is the difference between ER+/HER2- and ER+ breast cancer?
Most breast cancers express the estrogen receptor (ER) receptor and are negative for the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) receptor. ER+/HER2- cancers are treated with hormone-based therapies in the adjuvant setting and derive significant survival benefit from these therapies in the metastatic setting.
What is the difference between HER2+ and HER2 negative?
Cases in which > 10% of cells are amplified (in a minimum of 20 non overlapping cells in the amplified and non amplified areas) should be regarded as HER2+, while cases in which 1 – 10% tumor cells show amplification should be regarded as HER2 negative
Why is it important to test for overexpression of HER2?
It’s important to test for overexpression of HER2 because the results will determine whether you’ll benefit from certain medications. For more than 30 years, researchers have been studying HER2-positive breast cancer and ways to treat it. Targeted drugs have now changed the outlook of stage 1 to 3 breast cancers from poor to good.
Why is herher2 reported as indeterminate?
HER2 may be reported as indeterminate if technical problems preclude the reporting of a positive, negative or equivocal test result Reasons include improper specimen handling, crush artifact, edge artifacts and analytical testing failures