HER-2 Protein Overexpression in Patients with Gastric and Oesophageal Adenocarcinoma at a Tertiary Care Facility in Ghana

Abstract EN

The prognosis of gastric and oesophageal adenocarcinoma remains generally poor.

However, mounting evidence suggests a positive role of human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER-2) expression in the prognosis of patients with these cancers.

In this work, the patterns of HER-2 protein expression were determined in patients with gastric or oesophageal adenocarcinoma.

Retrospectively, we reviewed records of gastric and oesophageal biopsies received from 2008 to 2012 and their corresponding archived formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue blocks selected for immunohistochemical analysis.

The prevalence of gastric and oesophageal adenocarcinomas and their association with HER-2 protein overexpression were evaluated.

Gastric adenocarcinoma made up 18.79% of the gastric biopsies reviewed, and majority of these cancers occurred in males.

Regarding the tumour type, HER-2 overexpression was common in the intestinal subtype compared to the diffuse type.

Although squamous cell carcinoma was observed to be the commonest (31%) tumour type in the oesophagus compared to adenocarcinoma (8.79%), HER-2 was overexpressed in 42.9% of oesophageal adenocarcinomas, like gastric adenocarcinoma (41.4%).

There is a high prevalence of gastric and oesophageal adenocarcinoma, with significant overexpression of HER-2 in these tumours, a window of hope for the management of patients with these cancers.