Physical basis of the ‘magnification rule’ for standardized Immunohistochemical scoring of HER2 in breast and gastric cancer
Résumé
Detection of HER2/neu receptor overexpression and/or amplification is a prerequisite for efficient anti-HER2 treatment of breast and gastric carcinomas. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) of the HER2 protein is the most common screening test, thus precise and reproducible IHC-scoring is of utmost importance. Interobserver variance still is a problem; in particular in gastric carcinomas the reliable differentiation of IHC scores 2+ and 1+ is challenging. Herein we describe the physical basis of what we called the 'magnification rule': Different microscope objectives are employed to reproducibly subdivide the continuous spectrum of IHC staining intensities into distinct categories (1+, 2+, 3+).