HER-2 Evaluation in a Specific Gastric Cancer Population with the Highest Rate of Mortality in Spain

Gastric cancer (GC) still represents the second cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Radical resection is the mainstay of early stages treatment with little impact on overall survival (OS) in the advanced ones. HER-2 is the most relevant biological factor involved. Purpose. This study aims to show the relationship between HER-2 positivity and survival in patients with completely resected GC. Methods. Retrospective study of GC patients diagnosed in 2003-2005 at our institution. Surgical specimens underwent immunohistochemistry (IHC), and in cases +/++/+++ samples underwent also fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) analyses of HER-2 and graduated according to experts' consensus. Results. 120 cases included. Overall expression detected in 7.5%. Correlation between HER-2 positive and female sex, advanced stages or histological grades, or intestinal type was detected. Early recurrences higher in HER-2 positive (66.6% versus 35.4%, P = 0.048). The median DFS for c-erbB-2 positive was 15 months (range 2-67 months), and OS was 25 months (range 10-67 months). In the case of patients with c-erbB-2, negative median DFS was 27 months (range 5-67 months) and OS for this sample is 47 months (range 29-67 months). Conclusions. These results emphasize the relevance of HER-2 positivity in GC as independent prognostic factor and support its current analyses in daily practice.