title: Prognostic impact of HER2/neu protein in urothelial bladder cancer. Survival analysis of 80 cases and an overview of almost 20 years' research.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study was conducted to evaluate the quantitative assessment of HER2/neu immunohistochemical expression in urothelial bladder cancer in order to determine its prognostic significance.
  
  
  METHODS
  Archival tumor tissue from 80 patients with primary urothelial carcinoma were analysed for HER2/neu immunohistochemical expression. A highly reproducible standardized procedure on a Bond-X automated slide stainer was used.
  
  
  RESULTS
  HER2 protein was overexpressed in 41 of 80 patients (51.25%), demonstrating an increase in the expression rate corresponding to progressively advanced tumor stage (p=0.032) and tumor grade (p=0.0001). Kaplan-Meier analyses showed that positive membranous expression of HER2/neu was not associated with an increased probability of tumor recurrence (p=0.362). In contrast, HER2 scores correlated strongly with specific survival probability (p=0.002) and overall survival (p=0.025). Multivariate analysis revealed that only stage was an independent predictor of specific survival (p=0.016). HER2 expression was an independent predictor of specific survival with borderline statistical significance (p=0.08).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  HER2 overexpression represents a prognostic factor for adverse disease outcome.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cytopathology, Aretaieion University Hospital, Athens, Greece. skalaz@mail.gr
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Skagias
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Politi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Karameris
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sambaziotis
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Archondakis
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Vasou
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ntinis
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Michalopoulou
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Moreas
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Koutselini
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Patsouris
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism*; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000378:metabolism / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*; D016019:Survival Analysis; D001749:Urinary Bladder Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D019459:Urothelium / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; C508053:ERBB2 protein, human