Overexpression of c-erbB-2 oncoprotein and associated pathobiological factors in invasive primary breast cancer

Abstract

<span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; font-family:" times="" new="" roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";="" mso-ansi-language:en-in;mso-fareast-language:en-in;mso-bidi-language:hi"="">Breast cancer tissues from 271 cases were analyzed immunologically for c-erbB-2 oncoprotein (HER-2/neu), epidermal growth factor receptor (EGF-R) and estrogen receptor (ER). Overexpression of both c-erbB-2 oncoprotein and EGF-R showed an inverse association with ER and a direct association with metastatic involvement of lymph node and high histological grade. The frequency of c-erbB-2 and EGF-R overexpression was significantly higher among postmenopausal cases in comparison with premenopausal cases. Further, only in postmenopausal patients, c-erbB-2 oncoprotein (<img src='/image/spc_char/lembda.gif' border=0>²=6.4, <i>P</i> < 0.05) and EGF-R (<img src='/image/spc_char/lembda.gif' border=0>²=6.4, p<0.05) as well as their concomitant expression (<img src='/image/spc_char/lembda.gif' border=0>²<i>= </i>11.5, p<0.01) revealed a statistically significant association with ER.</span>