title: Detection of Her-2/neu expression in gastric cancer: Quantitative PCR versus immunohistochemistry.
abstract: The aim of this study was to compare quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) with immunohistochemistry (IHC) for the detection of Her-2 in gastric cancer, and to investigate the correlation between the expression levels of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (Her-2) and clinical features. Clinical data from 426 cases of gastric cancer were collected. Her-2 expression levels in cancerous tissue were detected using IHC, and the Her-2/neu gene expression levels were determined by qPCR. The correlation between the expression level of Her-2 and clinical features was investigated. The positive expression rate of Her-2 in cancerous tissue detected using qPCR and IHC was 11.17% (46/412) and 13.38% (57/426), respectively. The positive expression of the Her-2 protein/gene was significantly correlated with the depth of invasion and lymphatic metastasis, as well as the TNM stage (P<0.05). No significant correlation was identified between positive expression of the Her-2 protein/gene and tumor location, age, gender, differentiation degree and Lauren classification (P>0.05). The diagnostic consistency was good between the two methods (κ=0.828). The results indicate that the expression of Her-2/neu is closely associated with the development of gastric cancer. qPCR is a convenient, objective and efficient method, which may be used as an alternative to IHC or fluorescencein situhybridization for the detection of Her-2/neu gene.
authors.affiliation: Department of Central Laboratory, The 281st Hospital of the PLA, Qinhuangdao, Hebei 066105, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Guang-Jun
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, The General Military Hospital of Beijing PLA, Beijing 100700, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Chun-Wei
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrated Chinese Traditional Medicine and Western Medicine, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310021, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Mei-Yu
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Weifang People's Hospital, Weifang, Shandong 261041, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yu-Ping
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, The General Military Hospital of Beijing PLA, Beijing 100700, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
keywords: Her-2/neu; gastric cancer; quantitative polymerase chain reaction