New Automated HER2 Test Promises Faster, More Accurate Testing.

In 2011, an estimated 230,480 women in the United States were diagnosed with breast cancer1 and 20 to 25 percent tested positive for overexpression of the HER2/neu gene.2 Every year, up to 57,620 newly diagnosed women depend on a human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) test to determine if the HER2/neu gene is amplified in their tumor, and about one third of those tumors will respond to the infused monoclonal antibody trastuzumab (Herceptin). For that one third, adjuvant trastuzumab therapy in combination with other chemotherapy agents can extend survival. Trastuzumab, launched in 1998 for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer by Genentech (now part of the Roche Group), is acknowledged as the first personalized medication.3