A Study of Immunohistochemical Expression of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor in Prostatic Lesions

ABSTRACT

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a 170-kDa tyrosine kinase transmembrane glycoprotein expressed in normal tissues in many organs and different types of tumours. In prostate, EGFR is expressed mainly in epithelial cells, phosphorylation of EGFR (pEGFR) which is assessed by immunohistochemical methods could be useful prognostic marker for prostate cancer cases. Tumours may affect the surrounding non-malignant tissue and pEGFR immunoreactivity in the morphologically normal prostate tissue can be used to retrieve prognostic information. In this study the membranous and cytoplasmic expression of EGFR is checked in both the basal and luminal cells. Intensity of the staining and the pattern of the staining were noted in benign, in-situ and malignant lesions and it was found that the staining intensity of the luminal cells increase with a subsequent decreased staining in the basal layer as the lesion progress towards malignancy. Subsequently the staining intensity and patterns were correlated with the Gleason grade for triaging of the cases into different prognostic groups.