EGFR expression in pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia and ductal adenocarcinoma

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is an aggressive malignant tumor with poor prognosis. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is an important cell adhesion and signaling pathway mediator. The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression of EGFR in both pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PanIN) and PDA and their relationship to clinicopathologic characteristics. Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues including 81 cases with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, 27 with normal pancreas, 16 with PanIN-1A, 18 with PanIN-1B, 11 with PanIN-2, and 24 with PanIN-3 were used for construction of tissue microarrays. Imunohistochemistry for EGFR was performed. Normal pancreatic ducts, PanIN-1A, and PanIN-1B did not show EGFR overexpression. EGFR overexpression was observed in 18.2% (2/9) of PanIN-2, 41.7% (10/14) of PanIN-3, and 64.2% (52/81) of PDA, respectively. Significantly higher EGFR overexpression was observed in PDAs than in PanIN lesions (P<0.05). No statistically significant correlation was observed between EGFR overexpression and patient age, sex, tumor location, size, histological grade, vascular invasion, lymph node metastasis and stage at presentation, respectively. In conclusion, EGFR expression increased from PanIN to PDA. EGFR may be involved in early stage in development of PDA.