HER3 over-expression and overall survival in gastrointestinal cancers

• Published in: Oncotarget Vol. 6; no. 40; pp. 42868 - 42878
• Main Authors: Wang, Yadong, Yang, Haiyan, Duan, Guangcai
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Impact Journals LLC 15.12.2015
• Subjects: Biomarkers, Tumor - analysis; Gastrointestinal Neoplasms - metabolism; Gastrointestinal Neoplasms - mortality; Gastrointestinal Neoplasms - pathology; Humans; Odds Ratio; Prognosis; Receptor, ErbB-3 - biosynthesis; Research Paper; gastrointestinal cancers; overall survival; HER3
• ISSN: 1949-2553
• DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.5998

Published studies on the association between human epidermal factor receptor 3 (HER3) expression and overall survival (OS) in gastrointestinal cancers have yielded conflicting results. The aim of this study was to explore the association of HER3 over-expression with OS in gastrointestinal cancers. A systematic search was performed through Medline/PubMed, Embase, Science Direct and Elsevier. The summary odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated to estimate the strength of the association. Overall, we observed that HER3 over-expression was associated with worse OS at five years (OR = 1.38, 95% CI: 1.04-1.82); however, HER3 over-expression was not associated with worse OS at three years (OR = 1.33, 95% CI: 0.97-1.84). The cumulative meta-analysis showed similar results. In subgroup analyses by tumor type, HER3 over-expression in gastric cancers was associated with worse OS at both three years (OR = 1.69, 95% CI: 1.28-2.25) and five years (OR = 1.74, 95% CI: 1.26-2.41). In conclusion, our results suggest that HER3 over-expression may be associated with worse overall survival in gastric cancers. Well-designed studies with a large sample size are required to further confirm our findings.