HER-2 amplification but not butyrylcholinesterase mutability reflects aggressiveness of european-originated ovarian tumors

Tumorigenic roles were variably suggested for HER-2 and INT-2 oncogene amplifications and the “atypical” aspartate to glycine mutability in the butyrylcholinesterase (BCHE) gene in ovarian adenocarcinomas. To examine this notion we searched for correlations between these three phenomena and ovarian tumor classification and aggressiveness, using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR), single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP), and direct PCR sequencing. Our findings revealed no alleles carrying the atypical BCHE mutability in 30 European-originated patients with ovarian tumors compared with 11% (2/18) such alleles in Israeli patients with malignant ovarian tumors. This apparently reflected population diversity rather than disease relationship. INT-2 amplification was observed in 14/94 (15%) of the European patients; however, there was no correlation between this phenomenon and clinicopathological indices in the corresponding patients. In contrast, in 94 tumor samples we found that 40% (38/94) of the cases had HER-2 amplification. Moreover, there was a highly significant correlation (P < 0.008) between the over fivefold HER-2 amplification and ovarian tumor severity. These findings demonstrate an informative value for HER-2 amplification tests in tumor DNA, but not for INT-2 amplification or BCHE mutability, for the assessment of treatment.