Correlation Of HER2 Protein Expression With Prognosis And Clinicalpathological Factors In Yunnan In Gastric Cancer Patients

Objective:To investigate the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2(HER2) protein expression in gastric cancer patients from different ethnic groups in Yunnan and its relation with prognosis of the patients.Methods:Clinical data of 77 patients with Gastric cancer undergoing gastrectomy in Yunnan Tumor Hospital between February 2009 and February 2011 were analyzed retrospectively.The HER2 expression in gastric cancer and their adjacent non-tumoro-us tissues resected from theses patients were detected by immunohistochemical stain-ing. The new version of "HER2 Testing Guide of Gastric Cancer"scoring criterion was used to assess HER2 protein expression. The relations of HER2 expression with the clinicopathologic factors and survival of the patients were analyzed by the statisti-cal software SPSS 17.0.Results:The HER2 protein overexpression rate in the gastric cancer tissues was 10.4% (8/77), which was higher than all the adjacent non-tumorous gastric tissues presented none expression(0/77),χ2=8.438, P=003; The increased HER2 protein expression was significantly associated with age (rs=0.353, P=0.002), degree of differentiation (rs=-0.324,P=0.004), lymph node metastasis (rs=0.29, P=0.008).Lauren’s classification (rs=-0.394,P=0.000) and TNM stages (rs=0.331, P=0.003),while it was not related to gender (rs=0.2, P=0.860),smoking (rs=0.239, P=0.102), alcohol use (rs=0.404,P=0.878), ethnic groups (rs=-0.906, P=0.404), tumor location (rs=-0.019,P=0.871), size (rs=-0.060, P=0.606) and invasion depth (rs=0.107, P=0.354). Cox proportional hazards regression analysis identified that tumour differentiation (HR=1.26, P=0.034)、TNM classification (HR=2.85, P=0.006)、lymph node metastasis(HR=6.85, P=0.021) and age(HR=2.35,P=0.000) were independent risk factors for affecting prognosis of the patients, While HER2 expression wasn’t an independent risk factor affecting prognosis of the patients (HR=1.02, P=0.071). Survival analysis demonstrated that there was no statistically significant difference in survival rate between patients with positive HER2 expression and negative ones (χ2=0.114, P=0.736)Conclusions:1. Increased HER2 protein expression can not yet be served as an independent predictor for prognosis of gastric cancer. 2. Patients with old age, high TNM stage, intestinal type GC and well-differentiated gastric cancers have a higher expression rate of HER2 protein,they may be the potential responders to anti-HER2-targeted therapy.