Tissue microarray technology in breast cancer HER2 diagnostics

Tissue microarrays (TMAs) as current medical research tools significantly lower the costs of immunohistochemical examinations (IHC) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) while enabling high levels of standardization and reliability. Taking HER2 testing of breast cancer into consideration, we assessed the routine applicability of TMAs. A hundred and seventy-four consecutive samples of invasive breast cancer cases were selected. TMAs were constructed in order to conduct double HER2 immunohistochemical analysis and FISH abreast using the conventional slide by slide method. Comparing the immunohistochemical data obtained from TMAs with the routinely processed large sections, we found a 94.5%/92.7%, 85.7%/88.9% and 91.2%/90% concordance at immunohistochemically HER2-negative, HER2 2+ and 3+ cases using the CB11/HercepTest, respectively.FISH performed on TMAs helped to determine Herceptin therapy suitability in all cases, and when discordance was found, we controlled FISH on “large sections”. Being able to conduct FISH examinations at a reasonable price with or without prior immunohistochemical analysis, departments confronted with a certain frequency of breast cancer cases might extensively use the type of TMAs applied in our study. This is a relieve not only with regard to diagnostic work using microarrays, but this also allows to take new directions in research by shedding light on certain unusual cases.