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Over-expression of Her-2 in colorectal cancer tissue, but not in serum, constitutes an independent worse prognostic factor

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Abstract

Background

Currently, conflicting information exists regarding Her-2 over-expression and its clinicopathological implications in colorectal cancer (CRC). This study was undertaken to determine Her-2 over-expression in both serum and tumor tissue of CRC patients, and to assess its clinicopathological and targeted therapeutic implications.

Methods

Ninety five CRC patients and sixty healthy controls were prospectively enrolled. Her-2 expression status in serum and CRC tissue were examined by chemiluminescent immunoassay and immunohistochemical staining, respectively. The results were confirmed using fluorescent in situ hybridization. Clinicopathological parameters were analyzed according to Her-2 expression status.

Results

Serum Her-2 levels were found to be increased in CRC patients as compared to those of healthy controls. However, serum Her-2 levels were not found to be significantly associated with prognostic parameters. Her-2 expression analysis of CRC tissues revealed Her-2 over-expression in 23 patients (25%), i.e., 13 patients (14%) showed moderate over-expression and 10 patients (11%) showed strong over-expression. The overall survival of patients negative for Her-2 expression was significantly better than that of patients positive for Her-2 expression (P = 0.018). The disease-free survival of patients with Her-2 over-expression was significantly shorter than that of patients with no Her-2 expression (P = 0.021).

Conclusions

Her-2 over-expression in CRC tissue, but not in serum, acts as a significant independent worse prognostic factor. Assessment of Her-2 expression status may be valuable for the targeted therapeutic management of CRC.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Byoung Kwon Kim M.D. at the Green Cross Reference Laboratory (Yongin, Kyounggi-do, Korea) for FISH staining and interpretation, and Oh Jin Lee for technical assistance. This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) and grants funded by the Korea government (MEST) (No. 2011–0015304), the Leading Foreign Research Institute Recruitment Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) (2011–0030034), and the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology(2012010817), and by a grant from the Chonnam National University Hospital Biomedical Research Institute (CRI 13 017–1).

Disclosure of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Chonnam National University Medical School and Chonnam National University Hwasun Hospital, Hwasun, South Korea

    Sang-Woo Lim, Jung-Wook Huh, Young-Jin Kim & Hyeong-Rok Kim

  2. Environmental Health Center for Childhood Leukemia and Cancer, Chonnam National University Medical School and Chonnam National University Hwasun Hospital, Hwasun, South Korea

    Hye-Ran Kim

  3. Brain Korea 21 Project, Center for Biomedical Human Resources at Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwangju, South Korea

    Hye-Ran Kim

  4. Department of Laboratory Medicine and Environmental Health Center for Childhood Leukemia and Cancer, Chonnam National University Medical School and Chonnam National University Hwasun Hospital, Hwasun, South Korea

    Hwan-Young Kim & Myung-Geun Shin

  5. Department of Laboratory Medicine, Chonnam National University Medical School and Chonnam National University Hwasun Hospital, Hwasun, South Korea

    Jong-Hee Shin, Soon-Pal Suh & Dong-Wook Ryang

  6. Department of Laboratory Medicine, Chonnam National University Medical School and Chonnam National University Hwasun Hospital, 160 Ilsimri, Hwasun-eup, Hwasun-gun, Jeollanam-do, 519-890, South Korea

    Myung-Geun Shin

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  1. Sang-Woo Lim
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Correspondence to Myung-Geun Shin.

Additional information

Lim SW and Kim HR equally contributed to this work.

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Lim, SW., Kim, HR., Kim, HY. et al. Over-expression of Her-2 in colorectal cancer tissue, but not in serum, constitutes an independent worse prognostic factor. Cell Oncol. 36, 311–321 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13402-013-0136-6

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