| Summary: | <p>Abstract</p> <p>Whereas <it>HER2 </it>amplification is a well-known phenomenon in breast tumours, its frequency and clinical importance in ovarian cancer have not been established. The aim of the study was to compare the frequency of <it>HER2 </it>amplification in hereditary (<it>BRCA</it>-positive) and sporadic (<it>BRCA</it>-negative) ovarian tumours and to estimate the association of this gene alteration on clinical outcome in ovarian cancer patients. We analysed <it>HER2 </it>amplification in 53 ovarian tumours: 20 from mutation carriers (18 in <it>BRCA1 </it>and 2 in <it>BRCA2 </it>gene) and 33 from non-carriers. Fluorescence <it>in situ </it>hybridization for <it>HER2 </it>was performed on 'touch' slides from frozen tumour samples or formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue. Our results indicate that high amplification (<it>HER2</it>: centromere ratio>5) is an infrequent phenomenon in ovarian tumours (6/53 cases). It occurs in both hereditary (4/20) and sporadic (2/33) tumours and no difference in the frequency of <it>HER2 </it>amplification exists between these groups. There is no significant difference in the clinical outcome of patients with <it>HER2 </it>amplified and non-amplified tumours (p = 0.3). Our results suggest a different biological role of <it>HER2 </it>amplification in ovarian and breast cancer.</p>
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