Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) overexpression in endometrial carcinoma: association with histopathologic parameters

Atif Ali HashmiEmail author,
Zubaida Fida Hussain,
Muhammad Irfan,
Maheen Naeem,
Shumaila Kanwal Hashmi,
Huda Asif,
Samina Baloch and
Naveen Faridi

Surgical and Experimental Pathology20192:8

https://doi.org/10.1186/s42047-018-0028-1

Received: 9 July 2018
Accepted: 27 August 2018
Published: 8 March 2019

Abstract

Background

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a cellular oncoprotein which is overexpressed in many human cancers including a subset of endometrial cancers. Immunohistochemical (IHC) expression of EGFR has been investigated in previous studies; Role of EGFR in endometrial carcinoma as a prognostic biomarker has not been studied in our population; therefore we aimed to evaluate the expression of EGFR in cases of endometrial carcinoma in loco-regional population and its association with histologic variables.

Methods

Total 89 cases of endometrial carcinoma were selected from records of pathology department archives. All patients underwent surgeries at Liaquat National hospital, Karachi from January 2012 till December 2017 over a period of 6 years. Slides of all cases were retrieved and reviewed by two senior histopathologists and pathologic characteristics were evaluated. Moreover, representative tissue blocks of all 89 cases were selected for EGFR immunohistochemistry.

Results

73% (65 cases) showed no EGFR expression, while 21.3% (19 cases) showed low EGFR expression and 5.6% (5 cases) revealed high EGFR expression. Significant association of EGFR expression was noted with histologic type. Serous carcinoma and carcinosarcoma showed high expression of EGFR. On the other hand, no significant association of EGFR with other histopathologic parameters was found.

Conclusion

Overall, we found a low EGFR expression in endometrial carcinoma in our population without any significant pathological association except for its high expression in serous carcinoma and carcinosarcoma; however, more large scale studies are warranted to validate these findings.