THE PROGNOSTIC-SIGNIFICANCE OF EPIDERMAL GROWTH-FACTOR RECEPTOR EXPRESSION IN BREAST-CANCER

The association between epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expres sion, clinicopathological variables, silver-stained nuclear organizer region (Ag-NOR) counts, and patient survival was determined in 93 pati ents with operable breast cancer. The EGFR expression was found to be significantly associated with the presence and number of axillary lymp h node metastases (P = 0.0429), but not with age, menopausal status, t umor size, histologic type or grade, or Ag-NOR counts. In a univariate analysis, a significant difference was also observed in the survival of patients stratified by tumor size (P = 0.0091), histologic grade (P = 0.0352), axillarly lymph node metastases (P = 0.0001), and EGFR exp ression (P = 0.0263). However, a multivariate analysis revealed that a xillarly lymph node metastases was the only strong independent predict or of survival (P < 0.0001). When axillary lymph node metastases were excluded from the Cox model, the EGFR expression tended to be an indep endent prognostic factor (P = 0.0558). The results of this study thus indicate that the prognostic value of EGFR expression is limited becau se the EGFR expression is significantly associated with axillary lymph node metastases.