RESUMO
Objective To explore the clinicopathological features and prognostic significance of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) in gastric carcinoma. Methods Pathological data of 127 patients with gastric carcinoma were retrospectively analyzed. HER2 expressions of all patients were detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC). 119 (93.7 %) patients were undergone R0 dissection and 123 (96.9 %) cases received D2 lymph nodes dissection. 51 (40.2 %) patients received adjuvant chemotherapy. The proportional differences of clinicopathological features for patients between HER2-positive and HER2-negative were compared, including the patients' survival. Results HER2 overexpression rate was 8.7 % (11/127) in gastric carcinoma patients. For the patients with HER2-positive and HER-negative, the lymph node metastasis rates were 100.0 % (11/11) and 81.9 % (95/116), respectively (P= 0.041). The 3-year overall survival (OS) rates for HER2-positive and HER2- negative patients with gastric carcinoma were 32.7 % and 42.9 % (P=0.413), and the 5-year progression free survival (PFS) rates were 27.3 % and 42.2 % (P = 0.354), respectively. Among patients with HER2-negative, 3-year OS rate for patients with surgery plus adjuvant chemotherapy was 55.3%, compared with 35.4%for patients with surgery alone (P=0.015), and the 3-year PFS rates were 53.3 % and 35.3 % (P= 0.038), respectively. Among patients with HER2-positive patients, 3-year OS rate for patients with surgery plus adjuvant chemotherapy was 0, compared with 75.0%for patients with surgery alone (P=0.002), and the 3-year PFS rates were 0 and 60.0% (P=0.004). Conclusions HER2 is expressed in gastric carcinoma tissue, related to lymph node metastasis. HER2 status are not correlated with the prognosis for gastric carcinoma patients, however, it is likely to be a predictive marker for adjuvant treatment after surgery for patients with gastric carcinoma.