Dear Friends,
I am going to be attending the CAP Her2 conference in Chicago May 4-5,
2002.  I have included a message here from Donald regarding some Her2
issues I hope to find answers to at this conference.
If there are other questions regarding Her2, IHC, FISH and Herceptin
treatment you would like for me to inquire about, please send the
questions to me ASAP.  I will be reporting my review of the Her2
conference to the IHCRG and probably as an article for JOH.
Best regards,
Patsy

Questions posed by Donald Van Hecke
1. Do you know where the IHC score system 1+/2+/3+ comes from ? Is this
designed for Herceptest and generally applicated for all IHC stainings
on
HER-2 or is this some kind of an agreement made on e.g. an international

conference on Her-2 (same as e.g. the CD classification (Cluster of
Differentiation Markers)) ?
2. Upon interpretation of FISH results for Her-2 : What about Aneuplo=EFdy
17
? How is the interpretation on this ? No more internal control (On the
Vysis
system):
*            e.g. 2 green colored dots = Centomere chromosome 17 +
counting
red dots for Her-2 gen  (normal staining pattern)
*            in case of e.g. 4 green dots for centomere : at least 8 red

dots for Her-2 gen in order to have a valid test
*            But what if not so ? What is the value of the staining
then ?
What is the standarisation on this ? Do you have some data/ references
on
this ?

Perhaps those are questions for the IHRC group. Hope you can give us
some
clear vieuws on this.

Best regards,

Donald Van Hecke