title: Expression status of fatty acid synthase (FAS) but not HER2 is correlated with the differentiation grade and prognosis of esophageal carcinoma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Fatty acid synthase (FAS) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) are overexpressed in a series of cancers. However, few studies have investigated the potential role of FAS and HER2 in esophageal carcinoma. The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression of FAS and HER2 and the possible link between FAS/HER2 expression and the pathological prognostic variables.
  
  
  METHODS
  The frequency of FAS and HER2 expression was determined immunohistochemically. The overall survival rate was analysed by the Kaplan-Meier method and the log-rank test using SPSS 17.0 software.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The majority of the cases were esophageal squamous cell carcinomas (n=142). FAS and HER2 overexpression in the studied cases are 73.2% and 14.1%, respectively. There was a significant difference in FAS expression regarding tumor differentiation and FAS overexpression showed its prognostic value for patients with different tumor differentiation. Meanwhile, HER2 overexpression did not significantly relate to the clinicopathological characteristics of the tumors, with the only exception of the surgical margins.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  FAS and HER2 overexpression are common in esophageal carcinomas. FAS overexpression showed its prognostic value for esophageal carcinoma patients with different tumor differentiation, which lead us to consider FAS-inhibitors as potential candidates for target-based adjuvant therapies.
authors: Department of Radiation Oncology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Shaoxing University, Zhejiang, China.
authors: Dongping
authors: D
authors: Wu
authors: Jing
authors: J
authors: Xu
authors: Guangmao
authors: G
authors: Yu
authors: Bicheng
authors: B
authors: Zhang
authors: Haiyong
authors: H
authors: Wang
authors: Cheng
authors: C
authors: Wang
authors: Guomei
authors: G
authors: Ru
authors: Aijing
authors: A
authors: Sun
authors: Li
authors: L
authors: Shen
authors: Qichun
authors: Q
authors: Wei
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D064429:Fatty Acid Synthases / Q000032:analysis* / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D060787:Neoplasm Grading; D011379:Prognosis; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000032:analysis*; D015996:Survival Rate
chemical_list: D064429:Fatty Acid Synthases; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; C508053:ERBB2 protein, human