The Prognostic Significance of Her2-Neu Over expression in Gastric Carcinomas

Background: Her2/neu is one of the epidermal growth factor receptors families and seems to have prognostic significance of some solid tumors. The objective of this study is to evaluate the possibility of Her2 expression in gastric cancers and the possible relationship of Her2 with tumor’s clinicopathologic parameters and also its prognostic role.

Methods: This study was performed on 100 cases of gastric carcinoma with stage I b to III (according to TNM staging). Survival, recurrence date of patients, grade and lymph nodes involvement were assessed. Her2/neu expression was determined by immunohistochemical method on received sample blocks. Survival of patients with or without Her2-neu expression were evaluated by Kaplan- Meier method and compared with the log-rank test followed by multivariate analysis using Cox regression.

Results: Seven cases were 3+ membranous Her2 reactivity, 5 cases were 2+ and 13 cases were 1+; also 75% of cases demonstrated no reactivity. Regarding relationship between tumor grade and membranous Her2 , all patients with poorly differentiated tumors were Her2 negative but patients with moderate and well differentiated tumor had 18.1% and 19.6% Her2 reactivity respectively; there were no significant difference between groups statistically(P>0.05). Median overall survival was 27.25 and 46 months in Her2 negative and her2 positive cases respectively; there were no significant difference between groups statistically as well (P>0.05).

Conclusion: Her2 reactivity has not relationship with tumor grade and lymph node involvement as well as tumor stage. From the other point of view no significant correlation is found between Her2 expression and disease free survival or overall survival of gastric cancer patients.