Combined detection of Her2/neu gene amplification and protein overexpression in effusions from patients with breast and ovarian cancer.

Purpose: Her2/neu protein overexpression and gene amplification is found in 20-30% of breast cancer patients and correlates with poor clinical outcome. Patients who profit from anti-Her2/neu- therapy are routinely selected by examination of tumour specimens using immunohistochemistry (IHC) and fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) separately. Many studies found a good correlation between both methods for score 1+ samples and for score 3+ samples, but not for score 2+ samples.