A Survey of p53 and HER-2/neu Over Expression in Patients with Gastric Cancer and Correlation with Prognosis

Introduction & Gastric cancer is one of the most common cancers in Iran, and in some regions, the prevalence of this cancer is the highest among all diagnosed cancers, also it has the highest mortality rate. Concerning to different tumoral mutations that have role in prognosis and type of treatments in different cancers, this study was done to determine the association between p53 mutation and over expression of Her-2/neu marker and prognosis, for a better evaluation and treatment of gastric cancer. A cross sectional study was done on 51 patients (included 36 men and 15 women with average age 61.3 ± 12.5 years). They were diagnosed with gastric cancer after endoscopies and tumoral tissue biopsy or after surgery and pathologic examination. At first, tissue smears prepared for pathology and histological grading of tumor were reevaluated, and then tissue smears prepared from tumoral and normal adjacent tissues. They were strained employing IHC method and were evaluated for p53 mutation and over expression of Her-2/neu marker. Then staging and statistical analysis were done on the basis of information from surgical reports and a complete physical examination and para clinical evaluation. Results showed that p53 marker and Her-2/neu marker were positive in 51% and 54% of patients respectively. Although incidences of these markers were not different between both sexes and different ages, p53 mutation rate increased with histologic tumoral grading. Over expression of Her-2/neu marker increased with progression of staging. This study didn’t show the association between p53 mutation with disease stages and over expression of Her-2/neu marker and histologic tumoral grading. There is a direct association between histologic grading of gastric cancer and p53 mutation incidence and also between the stage of disease and over expression of Her-2/neu marker, which can show the prognostic value of these two markers in patients with gastric cancer.