her2 gene การใช้

• The HER2 gene produces a protein important for normal cell division.
• Herceptin was designed to be effective against tumors with an excess of the HER2 gene.
• Herceptin is used to treat breast cancer patients that have too many copies of the HER2 gene.
• That first test, which measured a protein made by the HER2 gene, found 1 in 4 women eligible for Herceptin.
• But that test only counts a woman's copies of the HER2 gene, not how much protein is in her tumor.
• In another approach, Dr . Nicholas James of the University of Birmingham in England tested a hybrid antibody that targets the Her2 gene.
• When several copies of a HER2 gene exist in a cancer cell, excessive amounts of a protein are produced on the surface of cells.
• But if patients have too many copies of the HER2 gene and then go on to produce thousands more protein molecules than healthy cells have, their cancer can grow out of control.
• In a study presented Monday, Genentech showed that a new test, which measures the HER2 gene directly instead of the protein, found only 1 in 5 women had elevated HER2 levels.