Effect of HER-2/neu overexpression on chemoresistance and prognosis in ovarian carcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effect of HER-2/neu protein overexpression on chemoresistance and prognosis in patients with epithelial ovarian carcinoma.


METHODS
A total of 141 ovarian carcinoma tissues surgically resected between 1987 and 2003 were assessed by immunohistochemistry (IHC). The characteristic of the patients and immunohistochemical results were compared by chi2-test. Survival analysis was performed by the Kaplan-Meier method and the log-rank test.


RESULTS
HER-2/neu overexpression was detected in 18 cases (12.8%). There were no significant differences in histopathological subtypes (P = 0.3550), FIGO stages (P = 0.8858), or residual tumor size at first surgery (P = 0.6607) between the cases with HER-2/neu overexpression and the cases without HER-2/neu overexpression. Among the 58 cases which responded to chemotherapy, only five cases (8.6%) showed HER-2/neu overexpression. However, among the 38 cases which did not respond to chemotherapy, eight cases (21.1%) showed HER-2/neu overexpression. Overexpression of HER-2/neu had a tendency to relate with chemoresistance of epithelial ovarian carcinoma, but there were no statistically significant differences (P = 0.0817). No association was observed between HER-2/neu overexpression and cumulative survival rate (P = 0.4970).


CONCLUSIONS
The results of the current study show that although HER-2/neu overexpression has a tendency to be associated with chemoresistance, it can not be a prognostic factor for the patients with epithelial ovarian carcinoma.
Sasaki
Naoki
N
Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, National Defense Medical College, Saitama, Japan. shinko@xd5.so-net.ne.jp
Kudoh
Kazuya
K
Kita
Tsunekazu
T
Tsuda
Hitoshi
H
Furuya
Kenichi
K
Kikuchi
Yoshihiro
Y
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D019008:Drug Resistance, Neoplasm / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D011379:Prognosis; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D016019:Survival Analysis
D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases