Expression of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 and p53 in gastric cancer patients: Clinical and prognosis relevance

Background: Increased evidence showed that human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) and p53 play an important role in gastric cancer development and could have a prognostic relevance. We aimed to study the expression of HER2 and p53 in gastric adenocarcinomas and to investigate the correlation with clinicopathological parameters as well as the overall survival in Tunisian patients. Patients and sMethods: A total of 95 patients who had undergone gastrectomy for gastric adenocarcinoma at Sfax University Hospital of Tunisia were included in this study. The expression of HER2 and p53 in tumor tissues was performed by immunohistochemistry. Results: Positive expression of HER2 was observed in 17.89% of cases while p53 nuclear expression was negative in 40%, moderate in 38.94%, and intense in 21.05% of tumor tissues. The expression of HER2 correlated significantly with patient's age (P = 0.011), histological type (P = 0.005), tumor differentiation (P = 0.009), and tumor node metastasis (TNM) stage (P = 0.048). On the other hand, the expression of p53 correlated with patient's age (P = 0.028), gender (P = 0.022), and TNM stage (P = 0.029). With regard to the prognostic value, negative nuclear expression of p53 alone or associated with loss of HER2 expression correlated significantly with prolonged overall survival (P log rank = 0.019 and 0.002, respectively). Conclusion: Our findings highlight the importance of HER2 and p53 proteins as predictive markers for prognosis allowing a better management of patients with gastric adenocarcinoma.