Prognostic significance of HER2 expression in neuroblastic tumors

HER2 is essential for normal embryonic development and has a critical function in oncogenesis and progression of some types of cancer. Neuroblastic tumors create a heterogenous group of pediatric embryonal tumors of sympathoadrenal lineage. The biological and prognostic function of HER2 in these tumors is not well established. In this study, we evaluated the status of HER2, its prognostic significance, and clinicopathological correlations in series of 79 untreated neuroblastoma. The immunohistochemical assessment of HER2 and Ki-67 (proliferation index) as well as HER2 copy number status were performed on tissue microarrays. HER2 expression characterized 63 tumors, including 34 with low and 29 with high level, showing either membranous or mixed membranous-cytoplasmic pattern. Sixteen cases were HER2 immunonegative. The pattern of immunolabeling depended on the maturity of neuroblastic cells, being the most intense in differentiating neuroblasts. None of the tumors revealed HER2 amplification. In the examined group, 20% of patients died of disease from 4 to 107 months (median 18) from the diagnosis, and the survivors were followed up for 14-149 months (median 59). Patients' age, stage of disease, tumor location, mitosis/karyorrhexis index (MKI), and presence of HER2 expression were statistically significantly related to survival probability as detected by the Cox proportional hazard model. In the univariate analysis, Kaplan-Meier curves revealed significantly poorer outcome of HER2 negative than HER2-positive tumors (either low or high expression). The immunonegativity was associated with adverse clinicopathological parameters, including poor survival, metastatic stage of disease, un- or poorly differentiated histology, high MKI, and higher proliferation index. In conclusion, HER2 expression, not accompanied by gene amplification, is common in neuroblastic tumors. HER2 positivity seems to have a positive prognostic significance. HER2 expression with a variable pattern is a marker of the stage of neuroblastic cells differentiation.