Evaluation of Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 Overexpression, Clinicopathological Characteristics, and Factors Affecting Survival in Gastric Cancer

OBJECTIVES: The objective of the study was to evaluate the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) overexpression, clinicopathological features, and factors affecting survival in patients with gastric cancer. METHODS: The study is a retrospective study conducted with 128 cases of gastric cancer who were admitted to Şişli Hamidiye Etfal Training and Research Hospital between 2005 and 2012. Patients’ demographic characteristics, performance score, tumor localization, information about surgery, HER2 measurements, histopathological characteristics, stage, treatment features, metastasis sites, and overall survival time were obtained from medical records. Immunohistochemical analysis was performed for HER2 scoring. RESULTS: There were 89 (69.5%) men and 39 (30.5%) women in the study group, and the median age of the patients was 64 years. The median survival time of the patients was 24.43 months. The survival rate of the patients was calculated as 35.4±5.9%. Overall survival time was found to be shorter in the group with higher HER2 levels and also those with advanced-stage cancer. The survival rate was found to be significantly lower in patients with perineural invasion and advanced stage. However, the survival rate was not associated with lymphovascular invasion, surgical margin involvement, and HER2 levels. In the multivariate Cox Regression analysis performed to assess the effects of gender, histological subtype, stage, and surgical margin on overall survival, disease stage was found to be the only factor effective on survival. Gender, histological subtype, and the surgical margin did not affect prognosis. CONCLUSION: The survival rate in gastric cancers was found to be lower in those with advanced-stage disease. Higher HER2 level and the disease stage were associated with shorter overall survival time.