Indian Journal of Gynecologic Oncology | 2021
Expression of HER2/neu Receptor in Epithelial Ovarian Cancers: An Immunohistochemical Pilot Study in Central India
Abstract
Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2/neu) plays an important role in tumour cell proliferation and metastasis. Although normal ovarian epithelium may express HER2/neu, it is overexpressed in approximately one third of patients of ovarian cancer. The expression of HER2/neu in ovarian cancer has been a subject of great interest. So, the present cross-sectional observational pilot study was aimed to evaluate the expression of Her2/neu receptor in epithelial ovarian malignancies. In this study, microscopic slides of 50 patients of ovarian cancer were screened. Immunohistochemical expression of HER2/neu in tumour cells was studied and correlated with clinicopathological findings. The expression of HER2/neu was seen negative in 24 cases (48%), 1\u2009+\u2009in 13 cases (26%), 2\u2009+\u2009in 10 cases (20%) and 3\u2009+\u2009in 3 cases (6%). Overexpression of HER2/neu was seen in 13 cases, out of that 5 cases (38.4%) belonged to stage III, 4 cases (30.8%) were of stage I and 2 each were stage II and IV patients. The maximum number of patients were categorized to have stage III (n\u2009=\u200922, 44%), and out of these, 13 (26%) were in more advanced stage of disease, i.e. stage IIIC. HER2/neu oncoprotein overexpression may be important factor in patients of serous carcinoma because it is overexpressed more frequently in it. However, in mucinous carcinoma, though it is less frequent, the intensity is usually stronger. It was also observed that higher expression was seen in early stages. It is also possible that with higher expression of oncoprotein, the disease may manifest early and may also be clinically detectable early.