Assessment of Methods for Tissue-Based Detection of the HER-2/neu Alteration in Human Breast Cancer: A Direct Comparison of Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization and Immunohistochemistry

Abstract

IHC does not consistently discriminate patients likely to have a poor prognosis, whereas FISH provides superior prognostic information in segregating high-risk from lower-risk beast cancers. HER-2/neu protein overexpression in the absence of gene amplification occurs infrequently in breast cancer, in which case, patient outcome is similar to that of patients without the alteration.