OVEREXPRESSION OF THE ONCOGENE C-ERB B2 IN PRIMARY OVARIAN-CANCER - EVALUATION OF THE PROGNOSTIC VALUE IN A COX PROPORTIONAL HAZARDS MULTIPLE-REGRESSION

To date, there are no prognostic factors in ovarian cancer that adequa tely account for tumor biology and disease behavior. In recent years, some reports have described the prognostic significance of the amplifi cation and overexpression of the oncogene c-erb B2 in various human ca ncers. Concerning ovarian cancer, this is still a matter of discussion . In the present study, tumor tissue of 275 patients treated for ovari an cancer at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Univer sity of Gottingen between 1982 and 1992 was immunohistochemically anal yzed for overexpression of c-erb B2-encoded transmembrane protein p185 . In 19% (51 of 275 cases), p185 overexpression was detected. The perc entage of pl85-positive cases varied from 7 to 46% according to histol ogical subtype. Correlation with tumor stage and the degree of histolo gical differentiation was not observed. Patients with p185-positive tu mors had a significantly worse prognosis (p=0.001); median survival wa s 20 months compared with 33 months for p185-negative tumors. In the C ox proportional hazards regression, p185 overexpression was identified as an independent prognostically relevant factor. These results sugge st that overexpression of oncogene c-erb B2 in ovarian cancer characte rizes a group with unfavorable tumor biology and a significantly worse prognosis.