(Vienna/St. Gallen, 18 September 2019), Myriam Stolz, doctor and researcher at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of MedUni Vienna/Vienna General Hospital was awarded a poster prize by the Austrian Society for Senology at the two-country congress in St. Gallen.
Myriam Stolz impressed the jury with her presentation of the study "HER2/CEP17 ratio and response rates in primary HER2-positive breast cancer patients undergoing neoadjuvant therapy: preliminary data".
The aim of Myriam Stolz' study was to identify the tumour characteristics that can predict response to neoadjuvant chemo-immunotherapy in HER2-positive breast cancer patients, in order to identify which patients are most likely to benefit from the double-modulated antibody therapy comprising trastuzumab and pertuzumab.
With this in mind, particular attention was placed on the HER2/CEP17 ratio at which a significant correlation could be found with pathohistological complete remission (pCR) and residual cancer burden (RCB) from the surgical specimen. Provisional data analysis showed that an HER2/CEP17 ratio ≥3.45 in the biopsy is associated with a higher response rate to neoadjuvant double-modulated anti-HER2 therapy in HER2-positive breast cancer patients.
The cut-off in patients with dual blockade appears to be lower than in patients that were treated with trastuzumab alone. This could point to a biomarker that could be used in future.
Moreover, the ongoing study was funded by the medical science fund of the Mayor of the City of Vienna and is being conducted in collaboration with the Breast Health Center of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology (Christian Singer, Myriam Stolz, Alex Farr), the Department of Pathology (Zsuzsanna Bago-Horvath, Kristina Tendl) and the Division of Oncology of the Department of Medicine I (Rupert Bartsch).
About Myriam Stolz
Myriam Stolz studied medicine at MedUni Vienna and is currently working as a junior doctor and doing her specialist training at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of MedUni Vienna/Vienna General Hospital. She is also completing a PhD at MedUni Vienna and this project is her PhD thesis. She has been conducting research within the Senology working group (Christian Singer) since 2014.