Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor-2 Assessment in Cancerous and Precancerous Lesions of the Stomach in Presence of Helicobacter Pylori

Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor-2 Assessment in Cancerous and Precancerous Lesions of the Stomach in Presence of Helicobacter Pylori
Zahra Heidari,¹ Hamidreza Mahmoudzadeh-Sagheb,² Nadia Sheibak,^3,*
1. Department of Histology, School of Medicine, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, IR Iran
2. Department of Histology, School of Medicine, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, IR Iran
3. Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran
Introduction: Importance of Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor-2 (HER-2) testing in cancer is increasing and on the other hand the there is a hypothesis about the role of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) in gastric cancer (GC) development. We seek to investigate the HER-2 expression in the presence of H. pylori infection in patients with gastric GC and precancerous lesions.
Methods: From 224 archived blocks, 58 samples with chronic gastritis, 58 intestinal metaplasia (IM), 58 gastric dysplasia and 50 gastric adenocarcinoma cases were selected as our principal groups. Each group was subdivided into H. pylori-positive and negative subgroups. The immunohistochemical method was performed for the detection of HER-2 expression in gastric biopsies using a polyclonal antibody. The staining intensity was quantified and differences among groups were compared using Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests. P values less than 0.05 was set as significant.
Results: Results showed that HER-2 expression among the four principal groups was statistically significant (P<0.05). There was a significant Increase of immunohistochemical expression of HER-2 in H. pylori-positive chronic gastritis compared to H. pylori-negative subgroup (P<0.05). The difference of HER-2 expression between H. pylori-positive and H. pylori-negative subgroups in dysplasia, IM and GC groups was not statistically significant (P>0.05).
Conclusion: The present study proposed that HER-2 overexpression in gastric tissues probably had important roles in the progression of cancer and the mentioned process probably was associated with H. pylori infection in the early stages of the precancerous lesions.
Keywords: Adenocarcinoma; HER-2; Gastric cancer; Gastritis; Helicobacter pylori.