Evaluation of HER2/neu Expression in Carcinoma Cervix

Carcinoma of uterine cervix is the most prevalent cancer among Indian women. The HER-2/neu is the Human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 and it is a gene localized on chromosome 17q21 that encodes a growth factor receptor like molecule with tyrosine kinase activity and has a structure similar to that of epidermal growth factor receptor. Its expression has been detected in several human cancers and is believed to be associated with poor prognosis, aggressive biological behavior and metastatic potential. The present study is to evaluate the presence of HER-2/neu in carcinoma cervix, its pattern of expression and correlation with histological type, grade of tumor and clinical stage. IHC is an excellent technique to detect HER-2/neu expression in carcinoma cervix. Several studies on uterine lesions suggest HER2 positivity is directly related with higher grade and more aggressive tumor, and having poor prognosis. This study included 100 cases of carcinoma cervix and these were subjected to immunohistochemical staining for HER-2/neu oncoprotein. Out of 100 cases, only 17 cases were found to be positive for HER-2/oncoprotein. Among these 17 cases, 16 cases (94.1%) were of squamous cell carcinoma and 1 case was small cell carcinoma .It was also observed that the positivity rate varied with differentiation and staging, lymphnode metastasis and parametrial extension status. Poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma showed 25% positivity, whereas positivity rate was 33.33% in cases of small cell carcinoma and was 50 % in stage III carcinoma. Also there was positivity rate of 33.33% in parametrial extension cases and 55% of positivity in lymph node metastatic cases. Thus HER-2/neu expression in Carcinoma cervix correlates with clinical stage, lymph node metastasis, and parametrial extension