Evaluation of the clinical characteristics and potentially prognostic factors in HER2-positive breast cancer.

From January 2000 to December 2019, the SEER Plus Database collecting human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) and hormone receptor (HR; including estrogen receptor [ER] and progesterone receptor [PR]) status for breast cancer (BC) cases. HER2-positive (HER2+) BC is an aggressive type, and HER2-targeted therapies have significantly improved the therapeutic outcome of patients. However, not every HER2+ BC patient achieves optimal benefits from current HER2-targeted therapies. Here, we conducted a detailed analysis to compare the demographic and clinic-pathological characteristics, survival, differential genes and mutations between HR+ and HR- in HER2+ BC patients. In this retrospective cohort study, Joint HR and HER2 status distributions by more than ten specific clinic-pathological characteristics were evaluated by using Pearson's chi-squared (χ2) test. The transciptome RNA-seqencing (RNA-seq) expression data together with detailed clinic-pathological information of HER2+ BC were from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and UCSC Xena. 30,482 (71.02%) patients were identified as HR+ /HER2+ BC and 12,440 (28.98%) patients were identified as HR-/HER2+ BC. HR+ /HER2+ BC patients were more likely to be younger than 50-year-old, white and infiltrating lobular carcinoma history than patients with HR-/HER2+. Patients with HR+ /HER2+ BC had lower risks of breast cancer-specific death and higher overall survival rates. Mast cells were enriched in the HR+ /HER2+ BC group, while plasma cells were more abundant in the HR-/HER2+ BC group.In conclusion, HER2+ BC patients benefit differently from current HER2-directed therapies, maybe partly due to the HR status and gene mutations, and they may provide potentially prognostic and predictive value and new treatment strategies for clinicians.