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autologous blood and marrow transplantation - Blog Science ...

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Bewick et al. 367<br />

HDCT with ABSC support, 13 of 24 (54.2%) evaluated patients overexpressed<br />

HER-2. This included three patients (three of 24) who were negative at the two<br />

prior measurements. Eight of 24 (33.3%) evaluated patients overexpressed HER-2<br />

at all three time points.<br />

The mean expression values of secreted HER-2 decreased during the course of<br />

treatment in 17 of 22 evaluated patients who were HER-2 positive initially <strong>and</strong>/or<br />

at time of apheresis. Eleven of these 17 values decreased to below the cut-point of<br />

0.2 U/mg protein after HDCT <strong>and</strong> ABSC reinfusion.<br />

Survival <strong>and</strong> clinical course analysis<br />

Patients that overexpressed levels of HER-2 (>0.2 U/mg) on at least one<br />

measurement were considered HER-2 positive. Twenty-four HER-2 negative<br />

patients responded to chemotherapy (17 PR <strong>and</strong> seven CR) <strong>and</strong> 21 HER-2 positive<br />

patients responded to treatment (17 PR <strong>and</strong> four CR). The total number of<br />

nonresponders (PD + SD) was five for both HER-2 positive <strong>and</strong> HER-2 negative<br />

patients. There was no significant difference in the response to chemotherapy<br />

between HER-2 positive <strong>and</strong> HER-2 negative patients (Fisher's exact test, data not<br />

shown).<br />

OS <strong>and</strong> PFS analysis using the Kaplan-Meier method on the basis of patient<br />

HER-2 expression levels are shown in Table 2. The median OS for all patients on<br />

this study was found to be 25.1 months, <strong>and</strong> the median PFS was 10.4 months.<br />

The difference in OS was highly significant between patients with HER-2<br />

negative <strong>and</strong> HER-2 positive plasma using the log-rank test (P=0.003), Wilcoxon<br />

Table 2. Overall survival <strong>and</strong> progression-free survival: results according to HER-2 over-<br />

expression<br />

Plasma HER-2 expression<br />

(+)HER-2 (n=27) (CI)<br />

(-)HER-2 (n=30) (CI)<br />

Hazard ratio (relative risk)<br />

p*<br />

Pt<br />

P$<br />

Median<br />

overall survival<br />

17.2 months (8.2,19.9)<br />

28.9 months (25.1, indeterminate)<br />

2.5(1.3,4.7)<br />

0.0030<br />

0.0018<br />

0.0040<br />

Median<br />

progression-free survival<br />

7.5 months (5.5,10.4)<br />

14.3 months (8.3, 24.6)<br />

2.3(1.3,4.1)<br />

0.0040<br />

0.0070<br />

0.0051<br />

(+)HER-2 <strong>and</strong> (-)HER-2 designates those patients with >0.2 U/mg protein or

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