RESUMO
HER-2 status has been used in breast carcinoma as a prognostic marker to predict drug response and to select patients for trastuzumab treatment. Since immunohistochemistry (IHC) is thought to be less reliable, HER-2 testing with FISH is preferred. The analysis of HER-2 is usually performed on formalin-fixed paraffin tissue sections obtained from surgery. The use of paraffin sections is very time consuming and labor intensive. The objectives of this study were to (1) develop a simple and quick FISH protocol using touch imprints of breast core needle biopsies, eliminating the deparaffinization and pretreatment; and (2) make the HER-2 status available at the presurgical multidisciplinary treatment planning conference. A total of 50 core samples of breast carcinoma were obtained from image-guided core needle biopsy. Both FISH and IHC data were available for 46 cases. Forty-four of 46 cases (95.7%) were consistent. Two IHC 2+ cases were nonamplified (ratios of 0.99 and 1.09). It is expected that, in the near future, additional molecular markers will be used before surgery when the overall treatment plan is being developed. We conclude that HER-2 gene analysis by FISH on breast touch imprints is easily done and is a useful and reliable technique.
