Amplification and over-expression of the neu oncogene in human breast carcinomas.

Amplification of the neu (or c-erbB-2 or HER) oncogene is found to be present in 15-30% of human breast carcinomas and has been reported to correlate with poor prognosis. We briefly review the literature on this subject with emphasis on our own results on immunohistochemical detection of neu overproduction in paraffin embedded tissue sections of human breast carcinomas.