title: Evaluation of Tissue Expression and Salivary Levels of HER2/neu in Patients with Head and Neck Squamous cell Carcinoma.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  HER2/neu, a member of the epidermal growth factor receptor family, has been shown to be over-expressed in some tumors. The purpose of this study was to determine the salivary levels and tissue expression of HER2/neu in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and their correlation with clinicopathologic parameters.
  
  
  METHODS
  Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) were used to evaluate the salivary levels of HER2/neu and immunohistochemistry was used to measure tissue expression of HER2/neu in 28 patients with HNSCC and 25 healthy control subjects.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The salivary levels of HER2/neu in patients with HNSCC were not significantly higher compared to healthy control subjects. There was no apparent correlation between salivary HER2/neu levels and clinicopathological features such as age, sex, tumor grade, tumor size and nodal status. All HNSCC specimens were positive (membranous or/and cytoplasmic) for HER2/neu, except one sample. Only one HNSCC specimen showed staining purely in the tumor-cell cytoplasm. All control specimens were also positive for both membranous and cytoplasmic HER2/neu but there was a significant difference between the level of cytoplasmic staining in the HNSCC specimens and in the control specimens (P<0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In our study, no overexpression of HER2/neu was observed. Thus, identification of HER2/neu levels plays no role in differentiating between normal and squamous cell carcinoma tissues or detecting the carcinogenesis process. Our findings suggest that the use of HER2/neu as a salivary marker of HNSCC is not recommended, because no significant preoperative elevation and no association with clinicopathological features were found.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and MaxillofacialPathology, School of Dentistry, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Soheil
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pardis
authors.forename: Yasaman
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sardari
authors.forename: Mohammad Javad
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Ashraf
authors.forename: Azadeh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Andisheh Tadbir
authors.forename: Hooman
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ebrahimi
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Purshahidi
authors.forename: Bijan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Khademi
authors.forename: Mohammad Javad
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Fattahi
authors.forename: Marzieh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hamzavi
keywords: Carcinoma; HER2/neu; Salivary Gland; Squamous cell of head and neck; Tissue expression