Immunohistochemical Expression of Her2neu in Premalignant and Malignant Lesion of Gall Bladder

Purpose: To evaluate the expression of Her2-neu in benign and malignant gallbladder lesions, and to establish correlations with clinico-pathologic parameters. Materials and Methods: Retrospective and prospective analysis was conducted on formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) 154 tissue sample included Premaligant and premalignant like lesions (including dysplasia, metaplasia and xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis)(n=47) and malignant gallbladder (n=85) with 22 cases of chronic cholecystitis as control. Hematoxylin and eosin stained slides of each case were reviewed for: type of malignancy (whether adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma or any other type), grade (well, moderate, and poor). Immunohistochemistry for Her 2 neu was performed and data analysis was conducted using SPSS 15.0 software. P value of ≤0.05 was considered significant. Results: The difference of Her 2 neu expression between benign and malignant groups was found to be statistically significant. Her2/neu positivity did not have any significant correlation with various clinicopathological parameters. Conclusions: The present study demonstrated overexpression of Her2-neu in gallbladder cancer. A trend of decreasing Her2/neu expression with increasing grade of tumor was observed. The results however are encouraging and suggest evaluation of Her2/neu as a candidate for targeted therapy.