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Advanced Gastric Cancer Essay

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HER2 ASSESSMENT IN LOCALLY ADVANCED GASTRIC CANCER:COMPARING THE RESULTS OBTAINED WITH THE USE OF TWO PRIMARY TUMOUR BLOCKS VERSUS THOSE OBTAINED WITH THE USE OF ALL PRIMARY TUMOUR BLOCKS

Introduction
In their May 2017 article in the Histopathology Journal ,’’HER2 assessment in locally advanced gastric cancer:comparing the results obtained with the use of two primary tumour blocks versus those obtained with the use of all primary tumour blocks’’ Chen Xu et al explore whether testing more than two primary tumour blocks for HER2 assessment, have more benefit in advanced gastric cancer(AGC) cases
The biomarker of choice to select patients’ eligible for trantuzumab in advanced gastric cancer is currently Human epidermal growth receptor …show more content…

In the all-block group ,4 tumour rich blocks were chosen and serially numbered in the order of their histology number.
Immunohistochemical (IHC)staining of HER2 was performed on the primary tumour to confirm HER2 status.Blind assessment of HER2 status was performed by two independent pathologists using the scoring system proposed by Ruschoff-Hofmann et al(1). The blocks were scored and recorded .For cases where there was discrepancies ,the highest score was noted as the final score.Cases with discrepant scores were further reviewed by a discussion panel however,cases with equivocal HER2(2+) ,were assessed by Fluorescence in-situ hybridisation(FISH) to confirm HER2 status.

Results
In the dual block group,the first and second block HER2 status were separately compared with the dual-block results.The HER2 + rate in the dual group was significantly higher than that with each of the blocks.In addition,dual-block assessment produced more HER2 + status ,and also a reduced HER2- outcomes.
While in the all-block group,there was a limited number of available blocks( n=4) for study.Each of the blocks,however,were separately assessed against the all-block groups.The results showed that HER2+ rate was significantly higher and also, significantly lower HER2- rate, than the representative single-block assessment.
Overall , in the

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