Changing trends in HER-2 neu positive breast cancers in women: A study by a medical student and his preceptor.

Abstract

e12509 Background: Breast cancer affects 3.5 million women in the United States with 155, 000 women living with metastatic breast cancer in the US with 40,290 deaths every year. In particular, HER-2 NEU positive lesions are aggressively malignant, with increased recurrence and decreased survival but good response to Herceptin. This study reviews trends of breast cancers and looks in depth into prognostic indicators, in HER-2 NEU positive breast cancers. Methods: Anonymized medical data including demographics and tumor characteristics from San Antonio Regional Hospital’s (SARH) tumor registry database were collected from 2015-2017. Inclusion criteria included female patients with a diagnosis of invasive breast cancers. Data was stratified according to age at diagnosis, race of the patient, histologic grade, size of the tumor, lymph node status, HER-2 NEU status and stage (pathologic and clinical). Results: From 2015 to 2017 we identified 371 patients with invasive breast cancers. The percentages of HER-2 NEU positive patients in these years was 15.7%, 16.0%, and 9.4% in 2015, 2016 and 2017 respectively. This represented a 6.6% drop in HER-2 NEU positive patients from 2016 to 2017. We then looked at all HER-2 NEU positive breast cancers. In 2017, 71% of patients with HER-2 NEU positive tumors presented with a low pathologic size compared to 36% in 2016 and 44% in 2015, and 29% presented with low histologic grade compared to 14% in 2016 and 12% in 2015, and 0% of patients presented with lymph node metastases compared to 18% in 2016 and 20% in 2015. Overall 100% of patients with HER-2 NEU positive tumors presented at a low stage compared to 73% in 2016 and 52% in 2015. Conclusions: Our data shows a decrease in HER-2 NEU positive cancers from 2015 to 2017. It is important to note that these HER-2 NEU lesions were associated with, smaller pathologic size, lower histologic grade, lower incidence of lymph node involvement and lower clinical stage. The identification of this subset of low grade, low stage HER-2 NEU positive tumors may be attributed to newer imaging modalities such as digital tomosynthesis and more aggressive preventive screening measures. These sensitive screening techniques may ensure a good clinical outcome.