Or, to connect with others diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer, join the Breastcancer.org Discussion Board Stage IV and Metastatic Breast Cancer ONLY forum.
Women with IHC positive scores tend to respond favorably to Herceptin. The drug is not considered effective for tumors with IHC scores of 0 or 1+.
It's important to note that results on the IHC test may vary from lab to lab, and that some labs are more proficient at HER2 testing than others. Discuss with your doctor whether you might want to get a FISH test, especially if you have a 1+ or 2+ result from IHC. That way you can get another measure of whether the tumor might respond well to Herceptin.
The IHC test results are most reliable for fresh or frozen tissue samples. IHC tends to be an unreliable way to test tissue that's preserved in wax or other chemicals. FISH testing is the preferred way to assess preserved tissue samples.