Expressions of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 in recurrent patients after radical gastrectomy and its significance

Objective To investigate the expressions of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) in recurrent patients after radical gastrectomy and its correlation with clinicopathologic features and prognosis. Methods The clinical data of 116 recurrent patients after radical gastrectomy between December 2011 and March 2019 in Fujian Cancer Hospital were retrospectively analyzed. The relationship between HER2 expression of the tissues after radical gastrectomy and clinicopathological features as well as prognosis was also analyzed. Results HER2 positive rate was 19.8% (23/116) in gastric cancer specimens of 116 patients after radical gastrectomy. HER2 positive rate in highly and moderately differentiated patients with gastric cancer was higher than that in those with poorly differentiated gastric cancer [33.3% (11/33) vs. 14.5% (12/83), χ2 = 5.292, P 0.05). HER2 expression was not associated with disease-free survival time (P > 0.05). Conclusion HER2 expression is associated with the differentiation degree of gastric cancer and the location of distant metastasis, but it can not be used as a predictor for recurrence of gastric cancer. Key words: Stomach neoplasms; Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2; Clinicopathologic features; Prognosis