Overexpression of HER2/Neu in gastric adenocarcinoma and its correlation with clinicopathological parameters

Abstract

Background: Gastric cancer is the fifth most common cancer in the world. HER2/neu is a proto-oncogene that has a key role in the pathogenesis of several human cancers including gastric cancer. The introduction of trastuzumab has increased overall survival in HER2/neu-positive, locally advanced, and metastatic gastric cancer. Aim: To study the HER2/neu expression in different histopathological types of gastric carcinomas and to correlate its expression with clinicopathological parameters. Materials and Methods: A total of 80 cases of gastric adenocarcinoma that had undergone curative resection from July 2016 to June 2019 were selected for the study. All tumor samples were tested for HER2/neu overexpression and it was correlated with various clinicopathological parameters. Results: In our study, the mean age of patients was 59 years. Majority of the tumors (60%) were located in the pyloric antrum region. Sixty-six percent were intestinal type followed by diffuse (29%) and mixed type (5%). HER2/neu overexpression was seen in 9% of cases. There was no significant correlation between HER2/neu overexpression and age, gender, site, histological type, or grade of the tumor. Conclusion: There was no statistically significant correlation between HER2/neu expression and age, gender, site of tumor, histological type, or differentiation of the tumor. Thus, HER2/neu can be considered as having no prognostic significance in gastric carcinoma.