A concordant expression pattern of fatty acid synthase and membranous human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 exists in gastric cancer and is associated with a poor prognosis in gastric adenocarcinoma patients

Fatty acid synthase (FAS) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) are overexpressed in gastric cancer (GC), and certain interactions have been found between FAS and HER2. A total of 94 patients were enrolled in the present study, each of whom underwent a D2 radical surgery in Zhongshan Hospital affiliated with Fudan University (Shanghai, China) between 2000 and 2005. The expression of FAS and HER2 was assessed by immunohistochemistry analysis of tissue microarrays generated from GC and non-tumor tissues. All data were analyzed by GraphPad Prism 5.0 to investigate the association between FAS and HER2 and to detect the potential association with prognosis. FAS (P<0.0001) and membranous HER2 (mHER2; P=0.0021) were overexpressed in the GC tissues, and a bidirectional and strong correlation was demonstrated between FAS and mHER2 in the tumor tissues. The expression of cytoplasmic HER2 (cHER2) was significantly lower in the GC tissues compared with the non-tumor tissues (P=0.0005), and cHER2 was expressed at a higher level in tumors that had better differentiation compared with poorly-differentiated tissues (P=0.0503). Patients with a concordant expression pattern of FAS and mHER2 showed a significantly poorer prognosis than the non-concordant group (P=0.0096; hazards ratio, 3.2801; 95% confidence interval, 1.5781–6.8176). GC tissues significantly overexpress FAS and mHER2 and the expression of these two markers is associated. Patients with a concordant expression of FAS and mHER2 are more likely to suffer a poor prognosis.