Herceptin Is a Drug That Is Given to Treat Certain

Multiple Choice

Herceptin is a drug that is given to treat certain breast cancers.However, it is most effective on tumors that are overexpressing the gene HER2.Which of the following strategies would be best for determining whether Herceptin would be effective in a given patient?

A) Perform preimplantation genetic diagnosis on a patient to determine whether the patient's germ cells contain mutations in HER2, and treat with Herceptin if they do.
B) Obtain a patient's HER2 sequence and compare it to a database of known HER2 mutations to determine whether the overexpression allele is present; if the overexpression allele is present, give Herceptin.
C) Obtain a patient's HER2 sequence and compare it to a database of known HER2 mutations to confirm that the patient has mutations in the gene; then give Herceptin if any mutation is found.
D) Obtain a patient's HER2 sequence and perform microarray analysis to determine whether the patient contains other mutations in addition to the overexpression allele.