Background: Urothelial cancer is the ninth most common cancer in the world and is known as the seventh most common malignancy in men. Clinically, non-muscular urothelial carcinomas (N-mUC) account for 70-75% of bladder cancers. Various factors have been investigated in Relationship with the diagnosis of urothelial cancers, one of the most useful of them is Human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2) marker, whose relationship with breast, stomach and esophagus cancers has been evaluated in many studies. The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of expression of HER2 marker and its accompanying factors in urothelial carcinomas.
Methods: All patients with urothelial carcinoma with history of Transurethral Resection of Bladder Tumor (TURBT) and radical cystectomy surgery in Modares Hospital in Tehran from April 2020 to March 2023 enrolled in this cross-sectional study. Paraffin blocks of patients were extracted and checked by a pathologist to ensure correct diagnosis. Then by HER2 marker with IHC method, were tested.
Results: A total of 84 people participated in this study, of them 74(88.1%) were male and 10(11.9%) were male. Most of the studied patients (94.0%) had urothelial carcinoma without squamous differentiation. In terms of tumor grade, 84.5% of patients have high tumor, and in terms of tumor stage, PT1 has the highest frequency and PT4a has the lowest frequency. 44 & 56 patients have performed TURT and Radical Cystectomy, respectively. HER2 marker expression was positive in 19% of the examined samples.
Conclusion:HER2 expression may provide additional prognostic information for patients with urothelial carcinoma. The consensus of the HER2 immunohistochemical scoring algorithm is crucial to ensure that it is a good first-line biomarker to determine the selection of patients for molecular studies and ultimately their selection for targeted therapy.