c-erb B2 and prognosis

Hello.

My mother is 46, pre-menopausal, and has recently been diagnosed with a 2.5cm invasive ductal carcinoma, tumor grade III/III. During mastectomy, frozen sentinel lymph node biopsy on six nodes has shown one axillary node with metastatic adenocarcinoma.

Radical mastectomy was performed, 15 more lymph nodes were removed and no other node involvement has been found.  No distant metastases have been identified.

Her tumor has been found to be ER negative, PgR %60 nuclear positive and c-erb B2 %95 membraneous positive. 6 rounds of chemotherapy plus 5 years adjuvant tamoxifen have been scheduled. She took her first dose of chemo (100mg adriamycin and 1000mg cyclophosphamide) two weeks ago.

My first question is: Is it known whether the c-erb B2 positive character of the tumor is in any way related to the recurrence probability?

My second question is: What are the latest prognosis statistics matching this data?

Many thanks in advance.

[CCF-RN,MSN-JS]

Dear usluceren, C-erb-B2 is another name for the Her-2 neu protein that is found on the surface of some breast cancers.  A breast cancer that is Her2 neu positive may be more likely to recur.  

This information along with the other information such as staging, tumor characteristics (ER status, Her2 status), help to determine the recommendations regarding treatments.  However, it is impossible to predict for sure how an individual is going to do.  What is hoped is that the adjuvant chemotherapy will do its job in terms of eliminating any microscopic disease that may be present in the body after the primary tumor is removed, and that the tamoxifen then decreases the hormonal climate by blocking estrogen that may have contributed to cancer growth.    

There is a good essay written that helps to put the issue of  cancer statistics into perspective on the National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations (NABCO) website.  I am including the direct link to the article here: http://www.nabco.org/index.php/index.php/138

[Abmishra]

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