The prognostic value of EGFR overexpression and amplification in Esophageal squamous cell Carcinoma

BACKGROUND: In view of the prominent role in cancer cell biology and alteration in substantial numbers of ESCC, defining EGFR molecular characteristics relevant to patient prognosis is of great importance. Therefore, we analyzed the protein expression and gene copy variation of the epithelial growth factor receptor (EGFR) in Chinese esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and explored the possible associations with various features of the tumors and survival of the patients. METHODS: Sections were made from tissue microarray composed of 96 ESCC, and examined for EGFR expression by means of immunohistochemistry (IHC) and for EGFR gene amplification by means of fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). The results of IHC were evaluated with six different reported scoring systems. Correlation with clinical features and survival was evaluated using chi-square test and Kaplan–Meier analysis. RESULTS: EGFR overexpression according to scoring system 1 significantly correlated with advanced lymph node involvement (P = 0.046), patient disease specific free survival (DFS) (P = 0.006) and overall survival (OS) (P = 0.007). No such association was observed using other 5 scoring systems (P > 0.05 ). EGFR amplification was associated with lymph node metastasis (P = 0.028), but not correlated with DFS and OS until 20 months. CONCLUSIONS: EGFR IHC overexpression evaluated by scoring system 1 might be suitable to be used in predicting patients survival in ESCC. EGFR gene amplification showed delayed prognostic information after 20 months. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12885-015-1393-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.