Evaluation of Tissue Expression and Salivary Levels of HER2/neu in Patients with Head and Neck Squamous cell Carcinoma

Pardis, Soheil; Sardari, Yasaman; Ashraf, Mohammad Javad; Tadbir, Azadeh Andisheh; Ebrahimi, Hooman; Purshahidi, Sara; Khademi, Bijan; Fattahi, Mohammad Javad; Hamzavi, Marzieh

doi:10.22038/ijorl.2012.668

Evaluation of Tissue Expression and Salivary Levels of HER2/neu in Patients with Head and Neck Squamous cell Carcinoma

Document Type : Original

Authors

Soheil Pardis ¹

Yasaman Sardari ¹

Mohammad Javad Ashraf ²

Azadeh Andisheh Tadbir ¹

Hooman Ebrahimi ³

Sara Purshahidi ⁴

Bijan Khademi ⁴

Mohammad Javad Fattahi ⁵

Marzieh Hamzavi ²

¹ Department of Oral and MaxillofacialPathology, School of Dentistry, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.

² Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.

³ Department of Oral Medicine, School of Dentistry, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.

⁴ Department of Otolaryngology, Khalili Hospital, Shiraz Institute for Cancer Research, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.

⁵ Shiraz Institute for Cancer Research, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.

10.22038/ijorl.2012.668

Abstract

Introduction:
HER2/neu, a member of the epidermal growth factor receptor family, has been shown to be over-expressed in some tumors. The purpose of this study was to determine the salivary levels and tissue expression of HER2/neu in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and their correlation with clinicopathologic parameters.

Materials and Methods:
Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) were used to evaluate the salivary levels of HER2/neu and immunohistochemistry was used to measure tissue expression of HER2/neu in 28 patients with HNSCC and 25 healthy control subjects.

Results:
The salivary levels of HER2/neu in patients with HNSCC were not significantly higher compared to healthy control subjects. There was no apparent correlation between salivary HER2/neu levels and clinicopathological features such as age, sex, tumor grade, tumor size and nodal status. All HNSCC specimens were positive (membranous or/and cytoplasmic) for HER2/neu, except one sample. Only one HNSCC specimen showed staining purely in the tumor-cell cytoplasm. All control specimens were also positive for both membranous and cytoplasmic HER2/neu but there was a significant difference between the level of cytoplasmic staining in the HNSCC specimens and in the control specimens (P<0.05).

Conclusion:
In our study, no overexpression of HER2/neu was observed. Thus, identification of HER2/neu levels plays no role in differentiating between normal and squamous cell carcinoma tissues or detecting the carcinogenesis process. Our findings suggest that the use of HER2/neu as a salivary marker of HNSCC is not recommended, because no significant preoperative elevation and no association with clinicopathological features were found.

Keywords

Carcinoma

HER2/neu

salivary gland

Squamous cell of head and neck

Tissue expression