Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012:2012:941259.
doi: 10.1100/2012/941259. Epub 2012 May 3.

HER-2 expression in immunohistochemistry has no prognostic significance in gastric cancer patients

Agnieszka Halon  1 , Piotr Donizy, Przemyslaw Biecek, Julia Rudno-Rudzinska, Wojciech Kielan, Rafal Matkowski
Affiliations

HER-2 expression in immunohistochemistry has no prognostic significance in gastric cancer patients

Agnieszka Halon et al. ScientificWorldJournal. 2012.

Abstract

The role of HER-2 expression as a prognostic factor in gastric cancer (GC) is still controversial. The aim of the study was to asses HER-2 status, its correlations with clinicopathological parameters, and prognostic impact in GC patients. Tumor samples were collected from 78 patients who had undergone curative surgery. In order to evaluate the intensity of immunohistochemical (IHC) reactions two scales were applied: the immunoreactive score according to Remmele modified by the authors and standardised Hercep test score modified for GC by Hofmann et al. The HER-2 overexpression was detected by IHC in 23 (29.5%) tumors in Hercep test (score 2+/3+) and in 24 (30.7%) in IRS scale (IRS 4-12). The overexpression of HER-2 was associated with poorly differentiated tumors, but this correlation was not significant (P = 0.064). No relationship was found between HER-2 expression and primary tumor size and degree of spread to regional lymph nodes. Both univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that TNM stage and patient's age were the crucial negative prognostic factors. No correlation was observed between patient survival and expression of HER-2 estimated using both scales. This research did not confirm HER-2 expression (evaluated with immunohistochemistry) value as a prognostic tool in GC.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Immunohistochemical expression of HER-2 in gastric cancer tissue: (a) Hercept test: 1+, IRS: 4, ×200; (b) Hercep test: 2+, IRS: 8, ×200; (c) HercepTest: 3+, IRS: 12, ×200; (d) Hercep test: 3+, IRS: 12, ×200.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Kaplan-Meier curves for survival and expression of HER-2 in studied group of 78 gastric cancer patients: No correlation was observed between Hercep test score (P = 0.454) (a), percentage of HER-2 positive gastric cancer cells (P = 0.717) (b), intensity of immunohistochemical reaction (P = 0.397) (c) and IRS rate (P = 0.071) (d).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Matsubara J, Yamada Y, Nakajima TE, et al. Clinical significance of insulin-like growth factor type 1 receptor and epidermal growth factor receptor in patients with advanced gastric cancer. Oncology. 2008;74(1-2):76–83. - PubMed
    1. Ohtsu A. Chemotherapy for metastatic gastric cancer: past, present, and future. Journal of Gastroenterology. 2008;43(4):256–264. - PubMed
    1. Koeppen HKW, Wright BD, Burt AD, et al. Overexpression of HER2/neu in solid tumours: an immunohistochemical survey. Histopathology. 2001;38(2):96–104. - PubMed
    1. Kaptain S, Tan LK, Chen B. Her-2/neu and breast cancer. Diagnostic Molecular Pathology. 2001;10(3):139–152. - PubMed
    1. Hirashima N, Takahashi W, Yoshii S, Yamane T, Ooi A. Protein overexpression and gene amplification of c-erb B-2 in pulmonary carcinomas: a comparative immunohistochemical and fluorescence in situ hybridization study. Modern Pathology. 2001;14(6):556–562. - PubMed

Publication types

Substances