HER2/neu: A Prognostic Marker for Ovarian Carcinoma

Abstract

Background: Ovarian cancer is the second most prevalent gynecological malignancy. Its prognosis is poor with a five-year survival rate of <50% with the available therapies. There is a constant need for new biological markers. Therefore, we conducted the present study to evaluate the association between human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER2) neu and the clinicopathological features of epithelial ovarian cancer.Method: A prospective, observational analytic study was conducted at Fauji Foundation Hospital, Rawalpindi between November 2018 and October 2019. It was a cross-sectional study with a quantitative correlational study design.Results: We recruited 90 patients. The mean age of diagnosis was 53 ± 8.022 years; 81.1% (n = 73) had raised pretreatment CA-125 levels with stage III (56.7%, n = 51) and grade III (54.4%, n = 49) at presentation. It was seen that 24.4% (n = 22) of the tumors expressed HER2/neu, 65.6% (n = 59) were negative and 10% (n = 9) were equivocal. 72.2% had platinum sensitive disease. According to HER2/neu status, 20% HER2/neu positive patients had platinum sensitive disease and 3.3% had resistant disease; meanwhile, 47.8% HER2/neu negative patients had platinum sensitive disease and 10% were platinum resistant. HER2/neu expression was significantly associated with grade (P = 0.040) and pretreatment CA-125 levels (P = 0.032) whereas our study failed to show a significant association between stage (P = 0.383) and chemotherapy response (P = 0.055).Conclusion: The current study demonstrated that HER2/neu was positive in 24.4% of the patients, which was significantly associated with grade and pretreatment CA-125 level. However, a longer follow-up is needed for survival analysis and establishment of HER2/neu as a prognostic marker for epithelial ovarian cancer.

Keywords

• erbb receptor
• carcinoma
• ovarian epithelial
• prognosis
• platinum sensitivity