Evaluation Of ErbB2 Over-expression/Amplification In Head And Neck Cancer For Future Management Of Applications

Evaluation of erbB2 Over-expression/Amplification in Head and Neck Cancer For Future Management of Applications.Objective The study was designated to investigate the erbB2 status in head and neck cancer by a quantitative real-time PCR. Methods Total RNA samples from the fresh tissues of 41 head and neck malignant tumors cases, 16 benign tumors and 20 inflammatory tissues were used to cDNA synthesis. The status of erbB2 were analyzed using real-time PCR. The erbB2 mRNA signal was normalized to the signal for TATA box-binding protein (TBP) mRNA. Results The mean normalized expression of erbB2 in malignant tumors (37.13±0.14) was obviously higher than benign tumors(0.95±0.13) and inflammatory tissues (1.00±0.12), P=0.0000. Over-expression (>5 above mean for inflammatory tissues) of the erbB2 gene was observed in 22/41 (54%) malignant tumors, at 5.37~903.89 fold. No over-expression signal was observed in benign and inflammatory samples. There were 1 and 2 malignant cases showed low-level amplification (2-fold to <5-fold) and intermediate-level amplification(≥5-fold to <10-fold) respectively. Whereas 20 cases presented high-level erbB2 amplifications (up to 10-fold). Among benign tumors and inflammatory tissues, 4 and 3 cases revealed low-level amplifications respectively, none presented intermediate-and high-level amplification. There was no significant correlation between the erbB2 status and histology, clinical stage, or lymph node metastasis. Conclusion It has been suggested that over-expression/amplification of erbB2 plays an important role in the tumorigenesis of head and neck cancer. But there was no clear relationship between the gene over-expression and poor prognosis. Real-time PCR, the new simple, rapid, semi-automated assay may be a powerful tool for gene alteration analysis in human tumors and to support future erbB2-based biological and gene therapy approaches.