title: Epidermal growth factor receptor-immunohistochemical detection and clinical significance for treatment of primary breast cancer.
abstract: Epidermal growth factor receptor is considered to play an important role in the carcinogenesis and progression of breast cancer, but its clinical significance remains controversial mainly due to different methods and methodical problems. We determined EGF-R expression by an immunohistochemical assay on paraffin-embedded primary breast cancer tissue by means of the anti EGF-R mab E30 (Merck, FRG) and streptavidin-peroxidase technique. Material and clinical data were available from 111 patients with a mean follow-up time of 75.4 +/- 1.1 months (range 61-90 months). 21 (18.9%) of the breast cancer specimens showed positive staining for EGF-R 5 year-overall survival in patients with EGF-R negative tumors was 61.7% compared with 41.6% of patients with EGF-R positive breast carcinomas. No correlation was found between the expression of EGF-R and other prognostic factors except an inverse relationship with the expression of the estrogen receptor (p < 0.05). Whereas EGF-R expression demonstrated prognostic significance in univariate analysis, this could not be confirmed by multivariate analysis. Immunohistochemical determination of EGF-R represents a reliable and simple method to obtain more data about the biological behavior of malignant breast disease with increasing impact on therapeutic procedures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, University Hospital of RWTH, Aachen, Germany.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Schroeder
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Biesterfeld
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zillessen
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Rath
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy; D066246:ErbB Receptors / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011379:Prognosis; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone / Q000378:metabolism; D016019:Survival Analysis
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone; D066246:ErbB Receptors