title: Impact of c-erbB-2 protein on 5-year survival rate of gastric cancer patients after surgery: a cohort study and meta-analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore the association of c-erbB-2 protein expression with clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of gastric cancer (GC) after surgery.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 133 patients undergoing surgical resection for GC between March 2006 and January 2009 in the Second Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University were included in this study. c-erbB-2 protein expression was determined by immunohistochemistry. Afterwards, a meta-analysis was performed to further confirm the association between c-erbB-2 protein expression and GC by employing stringent inclusion and exclusion criteria. All data analyses were conducted with STATA 12.0 and SPSS 19.0.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was no significant difference in c-erbB-2 expression among patients with various parameters including age, gender and histological types (all p>0.05). Among 133 GC patients, 32 patients presented c-erbB-2-positive expression and 101 presented c-erbB-2-negative expression (24.1% vs. 75.9%). The c-erbB-2-positive expression rate was significantly higher in GC tissues of patients with lymph node metastasis than those without. Similarly, a significant increase in c-erbB-2 expression was observed in well/moderately differentiated GC tissues compared with poorly differentiated GC. Patients with negative c-erbB-2 expression had a higher 5-year survival rate than those with positive c-erbB-2 expression, which was consistent with the results of the meta-analysis (OR = 0.54, 95% CI 0.37-0.80, p = 0.002).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study demonstrated that high expression of c-erbB-2 protein was strongly associated with lymph node metastasis, histological differentiation and 5-year survival rate in GC patients after surgery.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou - P.R. China.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou - P.R. China.
authors.forename: Zhenzhai
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou - P.R. China.
authors.forename: Guangrong
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou - P.R. China.
authors.forename: Shuguang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou - P.R. China.
authors.forename: He
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou - P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou - P.R. China.
authors.forename: Weijian
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*
chemical_list: D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases