Amplification of Her-2/neu oncogene in GERD - Barrett's metaplasia – dysplasia - adenocarcinoma sequence

Esophageal adenocarcinoma (ADC) incidence has been increasing dramatically in the past 3 decades despite the surveillance programs in patients with Barrett’s esophagus (BE). Therefore, markers of early neoplastic progression are required to predict of cancer risk in BE patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of Her2/neu amplification in different stages during Barrett’s-related carcinogenesis.

Her2/neu amplification analysis in 39 patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), in 34 with BE, in 11 with dysplasia and 13 with ADC were performed with PCR.

Her2/neu amplification was detected in 8% (3/39) GERD patients, 15% (5/34) with BE, 41% (7/17) with dysplasia and in 54% (7/13) with ADC. We observed an increasing trend in the frequency of Her2/neu alteration between BE-carcinogenesis stages (p=0.001). This finding was confirmed in the logistic regression analysis showing gradient in odds ratios between BE (2.07; 95% CI: 0.46-9.39), dysplasia (8.4; 95% CI: 1-83-38.53) and ADC (14.0; 95% CI: 2.81-69.69) compared to GERD; it was even higher after adjustment for age and gender.

Her2/neu alterations may occur early and increasingly during Barrett’s malignant progression. We suggest that it may be useful to stratify the risk of adenocarcinoma in patients with Barrett’s esophagus.