Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2006 Jun 5;94(11):1703-9.
doi: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6603154.

The relation between survival and expression of HER1 and HER2 depends on the expression of HER3 and HER4: a study in bladder cancer patients

A A Memon  1 , B S Sorensen, P Meldgaard, L Fokdal, T Thykjaer, E Nexo
Affiliations

The relation between survival and expression of HER1 and HER2 depends on the expression of HER3 and HER4: a study in bladder cancer patients

A A Memon et al. Br J Cancer. .

Abstract

Increased expression of the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptors, HER1 and HER2 are related to poor prognosis in most cancers studied. Recently, a high expression of the two remaining receptors of the EGF system, HER3 and HER4 has been related to a favourable prognosis. However, prognostic significance of HER1 and HER2 receptors in bladder cancer is controversial and the effect of the expression of different combinations of these receptors on patient survival is not well understood. Therefore, we examined the mRNA expression of all four EGF receptors with real-time polymerase chain reaction in biopsies from 88 patients with bladder cancer, where the survival was followed for a median of 38.5 months (range 1-117 months). Expression of HER1 and HER2 alone showed no correlation with survival. However, a high expression of HER1 together with high expression of HER3 and HER4 correlated to a better prognosis compared to the high expression of HER1 together with low expression of HER3 and HER4 (P=0.0006). Also, a significantly longer survival was observed in patients expressing high HER2 when coexpressed with high HER3 and HER4, as compared to the survival in patients with tumours expressing high HER2 but low HER3 and HER4 (P=0.0005). Our results suggest that the final outcome of patients with high HER1- and HER2-expressing tumours depends on the expression of HER3 and HER4.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Kaplan–Meier overall survival analysis comparing patients with high (above median) and low (below median) HER1 (A) or HER2 (B) individual expression in 88 bladder cancer patients. P-value represents log-rank differences in survival between two groups.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Kaplan–Meier survival curves demonstrating survival function of all EGF receptors in various combinations in 88 bladder cancer patients. HER1 (A) or HER2 (B) expressing tumours correlated to worst prognosis in the absence of both HER3 and HER4 expressions. Legend tables showing various combinations analysed. P-value represents log-rank difference in survival between all groups.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Kaplan–Meier curves showing survival analysis of coexpression of HER3 and HER4 in (A) patients with T1–T4 tumours (n=67) and (B) patients with solid and mixed type of bladder cancer (n=50). All patients were divided into three groups according to HER3 and HER4 coexpressions. Black line denotes patients with high HER3 and HER4 expressions (n=23), grey line denotes patients with low HER3 and HER4 expressions (n=26) and broken line denotes patients expressing either HER3 or HER4. P-value denotes log-rank differences in survival between high and low HER3 and HER4 expression.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Abd El-Rehim DM, Pinder SE, Paish CE, Bell JA, Rampaul RS, Blamey RW, Robertson JF, Nicholson RI, Ellis IO (2004) Expression and co-expression of the members of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) family in invasive breast carcinoma. Br J Cancer 91: 1532–1542 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Agudo D, Gomez-Esquer F, Martinez-Arribas F, Nunez-Villar MJ, Pollan M, Schneider J (2004) Nup88 mRNA overexpression is associated with high aggressiveness of breast cancer. Int J Cancer 109: 717–720 - PubMed
    1. Andersson U, Guo D, Malmer B, Bergenheim AT, Brannstrom T, Hedman H, Henriksson R (2004) Epidermal growth factor receptor family (EGFR, ErbB2-4) in gliomas and meningiomas. Acta Neuropathol (Berlin) 108: 135–142 - PubMed
    1. Arpino G, Green SJ, Allred DC, Lew D, Martino S, Osborne CK, Elledge RM (2004) HER-2 amplification, HER-1 expression, and tamoxifen response in estrogen receptor-positive metastatic breast cancer: a southwest oncology group study. Clin Cancer Res 10: 5670–5676 - PubMed
    1. Barnes NLP, Khavari S, Boland GP, Cramer A, Knox WF, Bundred NJ (2005) Absence of HER4 expression predicts recurrence of ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast. Clin Cancer Res 11: 2163–2168 - PubMed

Publication types