HER2 Overexpression In Urothelial Carcinoma Is Closely Associated With Disease Progression: A Single-Center Retrospective Study

Abstract

Background: Urothelial carcinoma especially metastatic UC, is still challenging to treat and associated poor outcomes remain. It is urgent to find new targets to change the treatment status of UC. As an important target of breast cancer, HER2 has been found to be closely related to other tumors in recent years.Methods: We performed immunohistochemical staining of HER2 in 170 human UC tissue sections, assessed the positive rate of HER2 in UC and analyzed the correlation between HER2 positivity and clinicopathological datas of the patients.Results: HER2 positivity exists in the whole UC, including UBC, UTUC and urethral carcinoma, the positive rate of HER2 in whole UC was 51.2%, and in UBC, UTUC, urethral carcinoma were 56.4%, 31.4%, 50%, respectively. In UBC, the positive rate of HER2 in NMIBC was 53.1%, while in MIBC was 65.7%. In addition, HER2 positivity was significantly correlated with multiple, histologic grade, invasiveness, T stage and location of the tumors.Conclusions: The positive rate of HER2 in UC especially in UBC was significantly higher than that in breast cancer reported by others, HER2 positivity is closely associated with tumor progression, HER2 may be an important target of UC, and HER2-positive UC patients may also benefit from HER2-targeted therapy in the future.