Cancer Res Treat.  2004 Aug;36(4):240-245.

Prognostic Significance of Immunohistochemical Expression of EGFR and C-erbB-2 Oncoprotein in Curatively Resected Gastric Cancer

• Song HS
• Do YR
• Kim IH
• Sohn SS
• Kwon KY

Abstract

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to investigate the prognostic significance of the expression of EGFR and C-erbB-2 gene products by immunohistochemical analysis for curatively resected gastric adenocarcinoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between January 1996 and December 2001, 739 patients with curatively resected gastric cancer patients underwent Immunohistochemical staining for EGFR and C-erbB-2 proteins, and we retro spectively analyzed their correlation with the clinical outcome. RESULTS: The overexpressions of EGFR and C-erbB-2 were 25.4% and 26.2%, respectively. The overexpressions of EGFR was associated with the more poorly differentiated tumor (p=0.000) and with neuronal invasion (p=0.03). Overexpression of C-erbB-2 was associated with less vascular invasion (p=0.001). Tumor depth or node metastasis was not related to the overexpression of EGFR or C-erbB-2. The seven-year overall survival and relapse-free survival rates were 87.2% and 75.8%, respectively. Upon multivariate Cox regression analysis, the tumor stage, tumor size and patient age were important prognostic factors for overall survival, and tumor stage was the important factor for relapse-free survival. Overexpressions of EGFR or c-erbB-2 were not significant prognostic factors. CONCLUSION: Immunohistochemical staining of EGFR and C-erbB-2 gene products were not independent prognostic factors for predicting the overall survival and the relapse-free survival in curatively resected gastric cancer.

Keyword

Gastric cancer; Prognosis; Immunohistochemistry; EGFR; C-erbB-2

MeSH Terms

Adenocarcinoma
Genes, erbB-2
Humans
Immunohistochemistry
Neoplasm Metastasis
Neurons
Prognosis
Receptor, erbB-2
Regression Analysis
Stomach Neoplasms*
Receptor, erbB-2

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Overall survival curve of curatively resected gastric cancer patients.

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  Fig. 2 Relapse-free survival curve of curatively resected gastric cancer patients.

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  Fig. 3 Overall survival curve of curatively resected gastric cancer patients according to EGFR expression.

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  Fig. 4 Relapse-free survival curve of curatively resected gastric cancer patients according to EGFR expression.

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  Fig. 5 Overall survival curve of curatively resected gastric cancer patients according to c-erbB-2 expression.

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  Fig. 6 Relapse-free survival curve of curatively resected gastric cancer patients according to c-erbB-2 expression.

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