Expression of HER-2/neu and P16 in epithelial ovarian tumors and its correlation with clinicopathologic variables

Ovarian cancer is often diagnosed at an advanced stage and evaluation of the various factors for early diagnosis of this cancer is highly valuable. This study was performed with the aim to evaluate the expression of HER-2/neu and P16 in epithelial ovarian tumors and its correlation with clinicopathologic variables. This descriptive-analytic and cross-sectional study was performed on 50 paraffin blocks of epithelial ovarian tumors obtained from the archives of pathology department of Mashhad Omid and Ghaem Hospitals during 2007 to 2013. After cutting the blocks، appropriate slides were prepared and immunohistochemical expression pattern of them، the slides were interpreted by an experienced pathologist. The study variables included patient''s age، disease stage، histological type of tumor، expression or non-expression of HER2-neu and P16 and survival of patients. The data related to the patients were extracted from the files available in department of Oncology، Ghaem Hospital. Data was analyzed using SPSS software (version 11. 5) and Kruskal-Wallis، Mann-Whitney، T-test and chi-square test. In this study، most common epithelial ovarian tumor was serous adenocarcinoma (64%). P16 was expressed in 32% of tumors، and its expression was associated with disease stage and overall survival of the patients (P = 0. 001، P = 0. 04). HER-2 was expressed in 28% of cases. Its expression was associated with histological type of tumor (P = 0. 03). But، no relation was observed between its expression and overall survival of the patients (P = 0. 07) and disease stage (P = 0. 70). With regard to significant relation of P16 expression with disease stage and overall survival of the patients، P16 expression is considered as a predictive factor of overall survival and disease stage. While، expression of HER-2 cannot be used as a prognostic factor of overall survival.