The prognostic impact of epidermal growth factor receptor in patients with metastatic gastric cancer

BMC Cancer

Salah-Eddin Al-Batran²  Elke Jäger²  Hans-Michael Altmannsberger³  Ralph Wirtz¹  Kristina Steinmetz²  Claudia Pauligk²  Dominique Werner²  Akin Atmaca² 

[1]STRATIFYER Molecular Pathology GmbH, Köln, Germany

[2]Department of Hematology and Oncology, Institute of clinical research (IKF) at Krankenhaus Nordwest, UCT-University Cancer Center, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

[3]Institute for Pathology, Krankenhaus Nordwest, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

关键词: Prognostic;    Survival;    Gastric cancer;    Immunohistochemistry;    EGFR;   

Others  :  1080087
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2407-12-524

 received in 2012-06-18, accepted in 2012-11-10,  发布年份 2012

【 摘 要 】

Background

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a potential target of anticancer therapy in gastric cancer. However, its prognostic role in metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GE) cancer has not been established yet.

Methods

EGFR status was analyzed by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in paraffin-embedded samples from 357 patients who received chemotherapy in 4 first-line trials. Automated RNA extraction from paraffin and RT-quantitative PCR were additionally used to evaluate EGFR mRNA expression in 130 patients.

Results

EGFR protein expression (any grade) and overexpression (3+) were observed in 43% and 11% of patients, respectively. EGFR positivity correlated with intestinal type histology (p = 0.05), but not with other clinicopathologic characteristics. Median follow-up was 18.2 months. Median overall survival (OS) was similar in patients with EGFR positive vs. those with EGFR negative tumors, regardless whether positivity was defined as ≥1+ (10.6 vs. 10.9 months, p = 0.463) or as 3+ (8.6 vs. 10.8 months, p = 0.377). The multivariate analysis indicated that EGFR status is not an independent prognostic factor (hazard ratio 0.85, 0.56 to 1.12, p = 0.247). There were also no significant differences in overall survival when patients were categorized according to median (p = 0.116) or quartile (p = 0.767) distribution of EGFR mRNA gene expression. Similar distributions of progression-free survival according to EGFR status were observed.

Conclusions

Unlike different cancer types where EGFR-positive disease is associated with an adverse prognostic value, EGFR positivity is not prognostic of patient outcome in metastatic gastric or GE cancer.

【 授权许可】

   
2012 Atmaca et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

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