J Korean Surg Soc.  1998 Jul;55(1):44-52.

Significance of C-erbB-2 Oncoprotein as a Pognostic Predictor for Human Breast Cancer

• Park KJ
• Cho SH
• Kim YH
• Jung GJ
• Kim SS
• Hong SH

Abstract

Immunohistochemical staining for the C-erbB-2 oncoprotein was performed on sections from paraffin- embedded tissue blocks of 96 primary breast-cancer patients who were operated on our hospital, in order to evaluate its significance as a prognostic factor in human breast cancer. We investigated the correlation between the traditional prognostic factors - patient age, primary tumor size, axillary lymph-node metastasis, pathological grade, and hormonal receptors(ER & PR) - and C-erbB-2 oncoprotein overexpression. The overall rate of positive staining of the C-erbB-2 oncoprotein was 37.5% (36/96). Statistically, the C-erbB-2 positive staining was not correlated with patient age, primary tumor size, axillary lymph node involvement, or hormonal receptors. However a high pathologic grade appeared to be statistically correlated with C-erbB-2 oncoprotein overexpression(p=0.010). In conclusion, the C-erbB-2 oncoprotein appears to have prognostic significance in human breast cancer.

Keyword

C-erbB-2; Breast cancer

MeSH Terms

Breast Neoplasms*
Breast*
Humans*
Lymph Nodes
Neoplasm Metastasis