Dowsett et al (2009) analyzed whether the degree of HER-2 amplification (HER-2 gene copy number and HER-2/CEP17 ratio) influenced the clinical outcome in patients with HER-2-positive breast cancer randomised in the two HERA trial (Piccart-Gebhart et al, 2005) arms with or without 1 year of trastuzumab after adjuvant chemotherapy. Although there was an apparent trend towards shorter disease-free survival with increasing HER-2 gene copy numbers or increasing HER-2 FISH ratios, the differences were not statistically significant. The gene discussed is ERBB2; the disease is breast cancer.