Abstract :
Background: Gastric cancer is the 5th most common malignancy and 3rd leading cause of cancer
death worldwide. Most cases are diagnosed in advanced stages making treatment difficult. International
regulatory agencies have recently approved trastuzumab therapy in locally advanced and metastatic gastric
adenocarcinomas expressing HER2.
Aims: To find HER2/neu expression in adenocarcinoma of stomach and correlate with clinicopathological
features and study H.pylori positivity in HER2 positive cases.
Settings and Design: The ambispective, observational study was conducted in the department of Pathology
(July 2017 to June 2019).
Materials and Methods: Seventy eight cases of gastric adenocarcinoma were studied, both endoscopy
guided biopsy or gastrectomy. Expression of HER2/neu and detection of Helicobacter pylori was done
using immunohistochemistry. HER2 expression was correlated with clinicopathological parameters and
H.pylori infection.
Statistical Analysis used: Fisher’s exact test, chi square test and p value
Results: HER2/neu was positive in 26.92% of cases, 16.67% were equivocal and 56.41% were negative.
55.13% of intestinal type were HER2 positive. Grade 1 tumor showed more HER2 positivity (42.31%).
HER2 positivity was independent of other parameters like age, sex and location of tumor. H.pylori was
positive in 24.36% of HER2/neu positive cases.
Conclusions: HER2 positivity correlated with Lauren’s intestinal type and grade 1 of tumor.HER2 is an
independent biomarker regardless of other clinicopathological features. Though few Her2 positive cases
showed H. pylori positivity, more larger studies are required to establish statistically significant association
between HER2 positivity and H.pylori infection.
Keyword :
Gastric cancer, Helicobacter pylori, HER2/neu.