COMPARISON OF THE MOLECULAR-GENETICS OF C-ERB-B2 AND P53 EXPRESSION IN STOMACH-CANCER IN BRITAIN AND JAPAN

Background. Differences in the epidemiology and treatment outcome of s tomach cancer have led to the suggestion that in Japan, this disease m ay be biologically less aggressive than that found in the West. The au thors compared p53b and c-erb-B2 expression, trying to identify geneti c differences in Japanese compared with Western stomach cancers. Metho ds. Paraffin embedded formalin fixed tissues from 89 British and 89 ma tched Japanese patients were examined by immunohistochemistry after mi crowave treatment. Cases were matched for T-stage, year of surgery, an d histopathologic grade. Results. Tumors from 48 British and 46 Japane se patients expressed p53, whereas those of 27 British and 28 Japanese patients expressed c-erb-B2. No significant difference in the density or distribution of protein expression was found between the two popul ations. The distribution of expression between diffuse and intestinal types and the proportion of cases expressing both antigens were simila r in the two groups. Conclusions. p53 and c-erb-B2 are expressed in th e same way in stomach carcinomas from Japanese and British patients. T his study found no evidence of genetic differences in the cancers from the two countries.