Immunohistochemical study of epidermal growth-factor and epidermal growth-factor receptor in breast-carcinoma

We examined the relationship between epidermal growth factor (EGF) and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) with clinicopathologic variables and silver-stained nuclear organizer region (Ag-NOR) counts in 93 patients with breast cancer. EGFR expression was significantly associated with axillary lymph node metastases, whereas EGF expression was not significantly associated with any of the clinicopathologic variables. Ag-NOR counts were not significantly different among groups of tumors categorized by EGF and EGFR expression, but a significant correlation was observed between clinical stage and synchronous expression of EGF and EGFR. However, EGF and EGFR expression did not appear to be independent prognostic factors as determined by multivariate analysis in which axillary lymph node metastases were included. We therefore conclude that EGF and EGFR expression may play a role in tumor progression rather than in tumor proliferation, but their expression was not useful in predicting the prognosis of patients with breast cancer.