title: Lack of HER-2 gene amplification and association with pathological and clinical characteristics of differentiated thyroid cancer.
abstract: Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2) is a well recognized prognostic and predictive factor in breast cancer. However, the role of HER-2 in thyroid cancer remains controversial. The aim of this study was to evaluate HER-2 expression in differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) and determine whether there is an association with other clinical and pathological characteristics. A total of 69 patients with DTC were investigated, 58 of whom had papillary and 11 follicular carcinomas. HER-2 was detected by immunohistochemical examination on sections from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tumor tissues. Tumors with HER-2 expression classed as +1 and +2 were retested with chromogenicin situhybridization. Clinicopathological data were retrieved from the hospital records of the patients. HER-2 overexpression was found in 4 (6.9%) of the 58 patients with papillary carcinoma, whereas there was no HER-2 overexpression in any of the 11 cases of follicular carcinoma. There was no association of HER-2 expression with tumor size, pathological grade and cervical lymph node metastasis. In conclusion, there were no HER-2 positive cases of follicular carcinoma and the incidence of HER-2 overexpression in papillary carcinoma was very low. Thus, HER-2 cannot be used routinely as a prognostic or predictive factor in DTC. The expression of other epidermal growth factor receptors in DTC merits further investigation.
authors.affiliation: Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery Unit, Safed, Israel.
authors.forename: Wahid
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Mdah
authors.affiliation: Oncology Institute, Ziv Medical Center, Safed, Israel.
authors.forename: Raneen
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mzalbat
authors.affiliation: Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery Unit, Safed, Israel.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gilbey
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Rambam Medical Center, Haifa, Israel.
authors.forename: Moshe
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stein
authors.affiliation: Oncology Institute, Ziv Medical Center, Safed, Israel.
authors.forename: Adi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sharabi
authors.affiliation: Oncology Institute, Ziv Medical Center, Safed, Israel ; The Faculty of Medicine, Galilee, Bar-Ilan University, Haifa, Israel.
authors.forename: Jamal
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zidan
keywords: clinicopathological characteristics; differentiated thyroid cancer; human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 expression