Prognostic significance of the expression of HER family members in primary osteosarcoma

The prognosis of patients with metastatic osteosarcoma is poor and has shown no significant improvement in nearly 20 years. The human epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor (HER) family is frequently overexpressed in the majority of human carcinomas, and is involved in promoting the proliferation and survival of cancer cells. However, the role of EGFR and HER-2 expression in osteosarcoma survival remains controversial and no previous study has simultaneously investigated the association of the expression of all the four HER family members with the prognostic significance of osteosarcoma. Therefore, the present study investigated the expression levels of the complete members of the HER family in osteosarcoma specimens, as well as their associations with the clinicopathological parameters, progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) time of patients with osteosarcoma. The expression of HER family members was detected in osteosarcoma tumor specimens from 60 patients using immunohistochemistry. The association of the expression of HER receptors in osteosarcoma with clinicopathological parameters was analyzed using χ² test and Fishers exact test. Survival analyses were evaluated by Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazards regression model. Overall, 18 (30%), 13 (22%), 23 (38%) and 19 (32%) patients presented with high expression of EGFR, HER-2, HER-3 and HER-4, respectively, and the co-expression of 2, 3 and all 4 members of the HER family was observed. High expression of EGFR and HER-4 was associated with distant metastasis. High HER-3 expression was significantly associated with an advanced Enneking stage and distant metastasis. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that the expression of EGFR, HER-3, HER-4, EGFR/HER-3, EGFR/HER-4 and HER-3/HER-4 was an independent predictor of poor PFS and OS time in osteosarcoma patients with stage I-IIB disease. In patients with stage IIB osteosarcoma, the expression of HER-4 and EGFR/HER-4 demonstrated a more significant effect on PFS and OS time. In conclusion, therapies targeting EGFR, HER-3 and HER-4 may provide promising strategies for primary osteosarcoma.