Clinicopathological features and prognoses of HER-2-positive gastric cancer

The present study aimed to investigate the clinicopathological characteristics of human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER-2)-positive gastric cancer and their association with HER-2 protein expression levels and prognosis. In total, 99 patients diagnosed with HER-2-positive gastric cancer who underwent radical gastrectomy were included in the study. χ² testing explored the association between HER-2 protein expression and clinical features. Disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were evaluated through Kaplan-Meier survival curves. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed to evaluate the impact of clinical variables on DFS and OS. HER-2 protein expression, tumor size, tumor invasion, lymph node metastasis, Tumor-Node-Metastasis stage, perineural invasion (PNI) and lymphovascular invasion (LVI) were associated with inferior DFS. HER-2 protein expression emerged as an independent prognostic factor of DFS in HER-2-positive gastric cancer, but showed no association with OS. Compared with HER-2 immunhistochemistry (IHC) 2+ groups, patients with HER-2 IHC 3+ exhibited a higher prevalence of PNI and LVI, a shorter median DFS time, and a lower tumor-free survival rate at 1, 3 and 5 years post-surgery. In conclusion, HER-2 is a significant negative prognostic factor, associated with a poorer DFS time, although data on OS remain limited. HER-2 IHC 3+ gastric cancer is characterized by a higher prevalence of PNI and LVI.