The clinical significance of HER-2 and NF-KB expression in gastric cancer.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the expression of human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER-2) and Nuclear factor-Kb (NF-KB) in gastric cancer, and the relation of these two parameters with stage, grade and metastasis of gastric cancer.


METHODS
The serum level of HER-2 in 75 gastric cancer patients and control participants were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits. Expression of HER-2 and NF-KB protein were detected by immunohistochemical staining (SP method) of paraffin-embedded tissues in 75 tumors (observed group) and 22 normal gastric specimens. The clinical pathological data was statistically analyzed.


RESULTS
Serum HER-2 level were significantly increased in study group compared with those in the control group (p<0.001). The HER-2 level of 8.2 ng/mL as the cutoff value has a 79% sensitivity and an 82% specificity for predicting gastric cancer. The positive rate of HER-2 and NF-KB in the observed group was 24.00% (18/75) and 62.67% (47/75) respectively. The expression of HER-2 and NF-KB were not correlated with age and gender, but with stage, grade and metastasis (p<0.05). The expression of NF-KB was correlated with tumor size (p<0.05), while HER-2 was not (p<0.05). When HER-2 was positive, N F-KB had a positive rate of 94.44% (17/18), but a positive rate of 52.63% (30/57) when HER-2 was negative. Expression of NF-KB in gastric cancer tissue was correlated with HER-2 expression (X2 = 8.514, p<0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
These data suggest that the expression of NF-KB in gastric cancer tissue is correlated with HER-2 expression, and they may play a very important role in the progress of gastric cancer.
Xiaogai
X
Li
Jiancheng
J
Tu
Di
D
Zhang
Zhigao
Z
Xu
Guifang
G
Yang
Lingling
L
Gong
Mingxia
M
Yu
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D005753:Gastric Mucosa / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016328:NF-kappa B / Q000032:analysis*; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000032:analysis*; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000473:pathology
D016328:NF-kappa B; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; C508053:ERBB2 protein, human