Significance of HER2/neu Expression in Oesophageal Carcinomas and its Association with the Histopathological Grading

Introduction: Oesophageal carcinomas are one of the most aggressive human malignancies which are associated with a poor prognosis because most of the cases are in stage 2 or 3 at the time of diagnosis with a high frequency of lymph node metastases. It is important to know the prognostic factors can help us on therapeutic decisions and improve the survival of these patients. A member of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) family, Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 (HER-2/neu) is a very useful antigenic marker expressed in oesophageal carcinomas which has increasing evidence of therapeutic significance. Aim: To determine the immunological expression of HER2/ neu in oesophageal carcinomas and associate it with the histopathological grading. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Department of Pathology at Coimbatore Medical College, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India, from January 2015 to February 2016. Total 30 cases of histologically proven oesophageal carcinomas were subjected for HER2/neu immunoexpression. Membranous staining was considered as positive and the intensity of staining was scored and compared with various histopathological parameters. The p-value