Prognostic impact of HER2/neu protein in urothelial bladder cancer. Survival analysis of 80 cases and an overview of almost 20 years' research.

PURPOSE

This study was conducted to evaluate the quantitative assessment of HER2/neu immunohistochemical expression in urothelial bladder cancer in order to determine its prognostic significance.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Archival tumor tissue from 80 patients with primary urothelial carcinoma were analysed for HER2/neu immunohistochemical expression. A highly reproducible standardized procedure on a Bond-X automated slide stainer was used.

RESULTS

HER2 protein was overexpressed in 41 of 80 patients (51.25%), demonstrating an increase in the expression rate corresponding to progressively advanced tumor stage (p=0.032) and tumor grade (p=0.0001). Kaplan-Meier analyses showed that positive membranous expression of HER2/neu was not associated with an increased probability of tumor recurrence (p=0.362). In contrast, HER2 scores correlated strongly with specific survival probability (p=0.002) and overall survival (p=0.025). Multivariate analysis revealed that only stage was an independent predictor of specific survival (p=0.016). HER2 expression was an independent predictor of specific survival with borderline statistical significance (p=0.08).

CONCLUSION

HER2 overexpression represents a prognostic factor for adverse disease outcome.