Expression of membranous epidermal growth factor receptor in colorectal adenocarcinoma and its correlation with clinicopathological features.

The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of membranous epidermal growth factor receptor in colorectal adenocarcinoma and it's correlation with clinicopathological features. Fifty formalin-fixed, paraffin embedded archival specimens of colorectal cancer were included randomly as cases. Immunohistochemical staining was performed to assess EGFR expression. The results were correlated with the clinicopathological features of colorectal tumor tissues. More than 1% of membranous EGFR expression was found in 24 (48%) of cancer specimens. The immunoreactions intensity was classified as weak, moderate and strong representing 2, 22 and 24%, respectively. According to multivariate analysis, EGFR expression was not significantly associated with age, sex, tumor site, stage, grade and type of tumor in cases. These results suggest that the assessment of EGFR expression in colorectal cancer by conventional immunohistochemistry has not proven its predictive value and can not be useful to predict about outcome of patients.