Clinicopathologic significance of EGFR and Her-2/neu in colorectal adenocarcinomas.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to determine the prognostic impact of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and Her2/neu protein expression in colorectal cancer.


METHODS
Immunohistochemistry was performed in paraffin-embedded specimens of 106 colorectal carcinomas for the assessment of EGFR and Her-2 expression. The results were correlated with traditional clinicopathologic parameters and patient outcome.


RESULTS
Membranous expression of EGFR was found in 50 cases (47.16%) and cytoplasmic expression in 32 cases (30.19%). Membranous overexpression of Her-2 was identified in six cases (5.66%) whereas cytoplasmic expression was found in 18 cases (16.98%). The correlation with other clinicopathologic parameters demonstrated a statistically significant expression of membranous EGFR in the older age group and a statistically significant expression of membranous Her-2 in patients with negative lymph nodes. None of the other parameters or patient prognosis was associated with EGFR or Her-2 membranous expression. Cytoplasmic expression was not related with any of aforementioned parameters.


CONCLUSIONS
Conventional immunohistochemistry was unable to reveal any association between EGFR expression and outcome predicted by the biologic role of EGFR in tumor behavior. Her-2/neu is not a pivotal pathway in colorectal cancer progression because it seems to be expressed in early stages of colorectal cancer.
Kountourakis
Panteleimon
P
Second Department of Internal Medicine-Propaedeutic, Athens University Medical School, Attikon University Hospital, Athens, Greece. panteleimon.kountourakis@yale.edu
Pavlakis
Kitty
K
Psyrri
Amanda
A
Rontogianni
Dimitra
D
Xiros
Nikolaos
N
Patsouris
Efstratios
E
Pectasides
Dimitrios
D
Economopoulos
Theofanis
T
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D066246:ErbB Receptors / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate
D066246:ErbB Receptors; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases