title: Assessment and prognostic analysis of EGFR, HER2, and HER3 protein expression in surgically resected gastric adenocarcinomas.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the significance of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER)2, and HER3 expression on survival outcomes in Chinese gastric cancer patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded specimens from 121 patients who underwent gastrectomy at Shanghai Renji Hospital from 2007-2010 were retrospectively examined. Fluorescence in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry techniques were used to identify gene amplification and protein overexpression. Correlations between the expression or amplification of HER family genes and clinicopathological parameters were then determined using statistical analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  EGFR protein overexpression, an increase in HER2 copy number and gene amplification, and HER3 protein overexpression were identified in 33.1%, 17.4%, and 62.0% of samples, respectively. Statistical analysis showed a significant association between EGFR expression and tumor invasion depth or tumor stage. HER2 was also shown to be significantly associated with the tumor grade. In addition, EGFR protein overexpression was found to be significantly associated with worse overall survival (P=0.03).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The HER family members showed a high expression in gastric cancer. EGFR protein expression was associated with overall survival.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Ren Ji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Daoqiang
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Department of Translational Science, Asia and Emerging Market iMed, AstraZeneca R&D, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Charles Yj
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Ren Ji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Danping
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: Department of Translational Science, Asia and Emerging Market iMed, AstraZeneca R&D, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Shuqiong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: Department of Translational Science, Asia and Emerging Market iMed, AstraZeneca R&D, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xinying
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: Department of Translational Science, Asia and Emerging Market iMed, AstraZeneca R&D, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.affiliation: Department of Translational Science, Asia and Emerging Market iMed, AstraZeneca R&D, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Paul R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Gavine
authors.affiliation: Department of Translational Science, Asia and Emerging Market iMed, AstraZeneca R&D, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xiaolu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yin
keywords: clinicopathologic significance; fluorescence in situ hybridization; gastric cancer; immunohistochemistry