Description: The antibody (2G11) can be used to stain cryostat sections or cell smears. BMS120 is also suitable as primary antibody in staining for FACS analysis, BMS120FI can be used for direct staining of cells, BMS120BT can be used in a 2-step procedure using the biotin-(strept)avidin system.
The epitope is located in the extracellular domain, no cross reactivity with
EGF-R has been detected by immunoprecipitation.
Both HER-2 oncogene amplification and oncoprotein overexpression have been correlated with breast, ovarian, gastric, lung, and other cancers.
In 15-40 % of primary breast cancers, amplification of the HER-2 oncogen is found which is highly correlated with overexpression of the encoded protein and seems to play a major role especially during the initiation of ductal carcinomas. HER-2 overexpression is described as independent prognostic factor with greater predictive power than most of the currently used prognostic tools - especially in axillary lymph-node-positive breast cancer patients.
32 % of ovarian carcinomas overexpress the HER-2 oncoprotein. Survival of those patients is significantly worse compared with cases of normal HER-2 protein expression. Additionally, patients whose tumors have high HER-2 protein expression are significantly less likely to have a complete response to primary therapy. A correlation between HER-2 expression, and clinical outcome has been also demonstrated for head and neck, salivary gland and placental carcinomas.
HER-2 is useful in identifying cancer cells with increased aggressiveness. Soluble p97-115 HER-2 (the soluble circulating fragment of p185 HER-2) protein levels in serum can be used as diagnostic tool for monitoring the extent of tumor spread, postoperative relapse and/or metastatic risk for different cancers.
