Prognostic significance of epidermal growth factor receptor in locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma for patients receiving chemoradiotherapy

Abstract

The aim of the current study was to investigate the prognostic significance of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in patients with locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) receiving concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT). In total, 47 patients with locally advanced ESCC who were treated with CCRT were included in the present study. The chemotherapeutics comprised of 5-fluorouracil (750–1,000 mg/m2/day; days one to five) and cisplatin (30 mg/m2/day; days one to three) in combination with radiation therapy (~60 Gy), which was performed as the initial treatment. EGFR expression was compared with the clinicopathological features, local recurrence, metastasis status and overall survival (OS). Overall, EGFR overexpression (percentage of immunoreactive tumor cells, ≥50%) was identified in 59.6% of the patients. The median survival time (MST) of the EGFR-positive group was 15 months and the MST of the EGFR-negative group was 23.5 months. A significant correlation was observed between EGFR overexpression and poor OS (P=0.024). EGFR overexpression was found to exhibit a correlation with lymph node metastasis (P=0.011), but no correlation was identified with other clinicopathological features. In addition, a correlation was identified between OS and gender (P=0.021), age (P=0.018), depth of invasion stage (P=0.035) and tumor location (P=0.023). EGFR overexpression determined by pretreatment biopsy may be a clinically useful biomarker for predicting the OS of ESCC patients.

Recent Advances From Basic and Clinical Studies of Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

“…Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is overexpressed in 59.6% to 76% of ESCCs 66,67 and is associated with a poor prognosis. 66,67 Large-scale sequencing studies have shown EGFR to be overexpressed (in 68% of tumors) and/or amplified (in 11%-24%) 62 but not frequently mutated (in 0-1.8% of ESCCs). [62][63][64] Moreover, 78.6% of ESCCs have mutations and/or amplifications in factors downstream of EGFR, such as RAS and AKT pathways.…”

Overexpression of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Its Correlation with Clinicopathological Characteristics in Central Uganda

“…The difference could have been due to the difference in the scoring method between the two series. In the communication of Gao et al [32] and that of Lin and the colleagues [19] both reported that there was no correlation between ESCC tumor differentiation and overexpression of EGFR with P-value of (.882 and .853) respectively. The importance of grade of tumor in EC and ESCC particularly, is controversial.…”

Chromosomal aberrations and prognosis in patients with concomitant chemoradiotherapy for resected head and neck cancer

“…In the observations of Gao et al, EGFR overexpression was associated with poor survival in HNSCC patients receiving CCRT (19). Szabó et al examined expression and genetic alteration of EGFR gene by FISH with 71 HNSCC patients and observed that increased copy number and overexpression of the EGFR gene was associated with poor prognosis in HNSCC (20).…”