title: Prognostic significance of CD44 and c-erb-B2 protein overexpression in patients with gastric cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of the study is to evaluate the correlation between c-erb-B2 and CD44 overexpression and survival of patients with gastric cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  The paraffin blocks of 48 patients with gastric carcinoma were retrospectively analyzed. The pathological specimens were stained with CD44 and c-erb-B2 by immunohistochemical methods.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The positivity of c-erb-B2 was detected in 9 patients. In six of them, predominantly strong cytoplasmic staining was observed. The remaining three tumors were predominantly membranous stained. No correlation was found between the c-erb-B2 positivity and overall survival (OS). Seventeen specimens (35.4%) were CD44 positive, all localized in cell membrane. The median OS time of CD44 positive patients was worse than that of patients with CD44 negative (11 vs. 17 months, respectively). This difference was statistically significant (p=0.03). In 5 patients both CD44 and c-erb-B2 were detected as positive. However, there were 23 patients with both CD44 negative and c-erb-B2 negative. The median OS time for patients with both CD44 and cerb- B2 negative was better than those of patients with both CD44 and c-erb-B2 positive (37 vs. 11 months, respectively, p=0.03). The relationship between CD44 and c-erb-B2 positivities and clinicopathological factors (p>0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results showed that there was no correlation between c-erb-B2 positivity and OS, except for CD44. In addition, we found significant association of simultaneous positivities of c-erb-B2 and CD44 with OS of patients with gastric cancer. CD44 alone can be taken as a prognostic factor and also simultaneous overexpression of CD44 and c-erb-B2 may be used as a marker of poor prognosis.
authors: Department of Geriatrics, Istanbul Education and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors: Alper
authors: A
authors: Doventas
authors: Ahmet
authors: A
authors: Bilici
authors: Fuat
authors: F
authors: Demirell
authors: Gokhan
authors: G
authors: Ersoy
authors: Hande
authors: H
authors: Turna
authors: Yasemin
authors: Y
authors: Doventas
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005260:Female; D005743:Gastrectomy; D006801:Humans; D018960:Hyaluronan Receptors / Q000032:analysis*; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000032:analysis*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D015854:Up-Regulation
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D018960:Hyaluronan Receptors; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; C497483:CD44 protein, human; C508053:ERBB2 protein, human