Clinical significance of erbB-2 (HER-2/neu) protein.

erbB-2 protein is believed to be a cell membrane receptor for the recently identified ligand gp30. When overexpressed, erbB-2 is an indicator of poor prognosis in adenocarcinomas of breast, stomach, lung, and endometrium. Even more important, clinical data suggest that erbB-2 overexpression may be an indicator of poor response to at least some commonly used adjuvant regimens. However, there is preliminary evidence that these tumors might respond as well to doxorubicin regimen as do erbB-2 negative tumors, at least in gastric cancer. The efficacy of doxorubicin-containing regimen in the treatment of tumors with erbB-2 overexpression needs to be explored further by retrospective analysis of finished clinical trials. Combination of chemotherapeutics with reagents that block erbB-2 signal transduction pathway may be another effective approach.