Correlation between EGFR Expression and Radiosensitivity in Cervical Adenocarcinoma Cases

Abstract

Background: Most of the cervical cancer patients, including those with cervical adenocarcinomas, come at advanced stage in the developing world so its mortality is high. Radiotherapy is one of the treatment modality for advanced stage cervical adenocarcinomas, but its efficacy depends on several prognostic factors such as the stage, histopathology, presence of organ dysfunction and expression of cellular biology markers mainly involve in cell proliferation such as the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). Some research indicates that activation of EGFR in malignancy (including cervical cancer) correlates with aggressive behavior, a poor prognosis and decreasing sensitivity of radiotherapy. However, the combination between targeted therapies and radiotherapy are innovative approaches which may provide a good result. This study aimed to assess any correlation between expression of EGFR and response to radiotherapy in cervical adenocarcinoma cases. Materials and Methods: A total of 32 women were registered in a retrospective study period January 2007 and May 2014. Paraffin blocks from these patients were processed by classical histological techniques and for immunohistochemical staining of EGFR, scoring being accomplished according to the immunoreactive scoring (IRS) of Remmele and Stegner. Results: Among the studied molecular factors, there was significant correlation expression of EGFR with poor response to radiotherapy (p=0.0001). Conclusions: The result of this study showed a significant correlation between expression of EGFR and sensitivity of radiation in cervical adenocarcinoma cases. Further research is n ecessary to obtain information about new therapeutic management.