Article
Expression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and number of EGFR gene copy in head and neck squamous cell cancer
Search Medline for
Authors
Published: | September 22, 2005 |
---|
Outline
Text
EGFR is a member of erb protein family. The EGFR gene coding the receptor is localized at chromosome 7. The EGFR protein is expressed on the membrane of all squamous cells at a low level. Increased expression of EGFR is found in many tumors of epithelial origin including head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC). There are limited data addressing mutual relationship between the EGFR protein expression and a copy number of the EGFR gene in HNSCC patients. The aim of this study was to find out if such relation exists and to determine potential value of detection of the EGFR protein expression alone or in a combination with establishing the EGFR gene copy number for indication of anti-EGFR therapy (cetuximab).
33 HNSCC specimens were analyzed for EGFR expression by immunohistochemistry and for EGFR gene copy number and number of chromosome 7 by FISH.
Overexpression of EGFR was detected in all tumor samples. Amplification of the EGFR gene was found in 7 patients. Numerical changes of chromosome 7 were found in 23 patients. We found no correlation between the individual type of EGFR protein expression and EGFR gene amplification and/or numerical changes of chromosome 7.
We may conclude that the overexpression of the EGFR protein was not caused by the EGFR gene amplification and it was not related to increased numbers of chromosome 7. Moreover, it is a questionable whether the assessment of the EGFR protein expression would be necessary as a criterion to introduce the cetuximab therapy, because we found strong EGFR positivity in nearly all patients.
This work was supported by the Internal Grant of The Faculty Hospital Motol No. 9730.