2Department of Pathology, Karadeniz Technical University, Trabzon-Turkey DOI : 10.5505/tjo.2017.1598 OBJECTIVE
Our purpose was to evaluate the prognostic or predictive importance of HER2 status in gastric cancer patients treated with postoperative chemoradiotherapy.
METHODS
We retrospectively analyzed the records of 49 gastric cancer patients treated with curative intent between
April 2012 and January 2017; we also assessed the impact of HER2 status on prognosis and treatment
outcomes.
RESULTS
During a median follow-up period of 14.6 months (range, 4.0?56.97 months), two patients (4%) had local
recurrence and 21 patients (43%) developed distant metastasis. We found no statistically significant difference
in metastasis frequency rates between HER2 negative (?) and positive (+) patients. The median
overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) for the whole group were 24.9 and 24.2 months,
respectively. Although there was no significant difference in OS and DFS according to HER2 status, there
was a negative trend in OS (p=0.451) and DFS (p=0.633) in HER2 (+) patients.
CONCLUSION
Although our study did not demonstrate any statistically significant importance of HER2 status in gastric
cancer patients treated with postoperative chemoradiotherapy, the median OS of 13 months in HER2
(+) patients and 24.9 months for HER2 (?) patients warranted randomized trials with larger cohorts.