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From 15th February 2010 Source Bioscience Healthcare will be offering the

GASTRIC HER2 test

The EMEA has recently granted Herceptin European wide approval for use in metastatic gastric cancer.

The GASTRIC HER2 test is more complex than the standard HER2 test for breast cancer and Source Bioscience are the only laboratory in the country offering this test today.

HER2 testing in gastric cancer   Validated methods and scoring systems to ascertain HER2 status in breast cancer using immunohistochemistry (IHC) or in situ hybridisation (ISH) are well established. Recent evidence suggests that these same techniques, with some minor modifications, may be equally valid for assessing HER2 status in gastric cancer.1   In comparison to HER2-testing of breast tissue, gastric tissue typically exhibits a higher level of incomplete membrane staining.  

Special aspects of HER2 staining in gastric cancer

Based on histological differences between gastric and breast tumours, an international consensus meeting recommended minor changes to the HercepTest™ IHC HER2-scoring system to enable its use in gastric cancer.1 When using the modified scoring system, the concordance between IHC and fluorescence ISH for assessing HER2-positive gastric tumours was over 90%