Objective: The purpose of the study is to assess the incidence of the HER2/neu transmembrane receptor in patients diagnosed with endometrial cancer, and to determine the association of HER2/neu with other negative prognostic factors.
Material and method: We followed the survival rates for 2 and 3 years depending of the presence of HER2/neu, correlated with other prognostic factors of endometrial cancer like the stage of the disease, the histological type and the grade of malignancy.
Results: Out of 42 patients treated, 72.42% were HER2/neu positive. In stage I 65%, in stage II 73.33%, in stage III 100% were positive for HER2/neu. The cases with endometrioid type were positive in 65.62%, with non-endometrioid type in 90%. In well differentiated forms 50%, in moderately differentiated forms 84.21% and in undifferentiated forms 77.77% were HER2/neu positive. The 2 year survival rate was 80% in HER2 positive cases, and 83.33% in negative cases. The 2 year survival rate was 85% in stage I, 80% in stage II, 66.66% in stage III and 92.85% in G1, 89.47% in G2 and 55.55% in G3 forms.
Conclusions: High expression of HER2/neu was present in advanced stages, in non-endometrioid types and in less differentiated forms of endometrial cancer. The stage of the disease and the degree of malignancy are the factors that can influence the long term survival. The pre-sence of HER2 transmembrane receptor seems not to influence the survival rates. More important prognostic predictors are the stage of the disease, the histological type and the grade of malignancy.