Abstract :Introduction: HER 2 (c-erbB-2) is involved in the prostate cancer development and, more
specifically, in the progression of the disease from androgen-dependent to hormone-refractory. The
purpose of this study is to assess whether the overexpression of HER 2 (c-erbB2) is associated with
the behavior for biochemical recurrence for prostate cancer regarding incidence and the amount of
time needed for its manifestation.
Material and Methods: All patients submitted to radical retropubic prostatectomy for prostate
cancer in one of the author’s private practice (MS) from 1990 to 2012 were recruited. There were
found 2,284 patients. Of these patients, were included only the patients whose surgical specimen
analysis encompassed the research for HER 2 (erbB-2) expression and with demographic and
follow-up data. Therefore, 365 patients were included in the study. The patients were divided in two
groups for analysis: those with overexpression of HER2 (erbB-2) and those without it.
Results: The overexpression of HER (c-erB2) was associated with higher pre-operative PSA
(p<0.001), higher Gleason score in the surgical specimen (p=0.043) and percentage of positive
fragments at core biopsy (p=0.013). Biochemical recurrence (PSA>0.2) was more than twice (41.5%
vs. 19.8%, p<0.001) more frequent in the patients with HER 2 (c-erB2) overexpression. Nevertheless,
there was no difference in the time for biochemical recurrence (p=0.73). There was little data after
recurrence for those patients were forwarded for the clinical oncologist.
Conclusions: In our study sample we found that HER-2 (c-erbB2) overexpression was associated
with more biochemical recurrence by more than two fold, even though it takes about the same
amount of time for the recurrence to happen.