• Ji-Won Kim, Jee Hyun Kim, Seock-Ah Im, Kyung-Hun Lee, Jin-Soo Kim, Tae-Yong Kim, Sae-Won Han, Yoon Kyung Jeon, Do-Youn Oh, Tae-You Kim, and In Ae Park.
• Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, 101 Daehak-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul, 110-744, Korea.
• Cancer Chemother. Pharmacol. 2013 Nov 1; 72 (5): 1023-9.

PurposeEpidermal growth factor (EGF) is a ligand for the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) shares common signal pathways and forms a heterodimer with EGFR. In this study, we investigated the clinical and pathologic implications of serum EGF levels in patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer (MBC).MethodsWe analyzed serum EGF levels from baseline serum samples of consecutive patients with HER2-positive MBC who received first-line trastuzumab plus taxane chemotherapy and correlated them with treatment outcomes and pathologic features.ResultsA total of 50 women were analyzed. The median age was 47 years (range 27-72 years). Patients with high serum EGF levels (≥10.0 pg/mL) had significantly longer overall survival (47.0 months (95 % confidence interval (CI) 28.3-65.7 months) vs. 23.3 months (95 % CI 13.5-33.1 months); p = 0.009) with a tendency toward longer progression-free survival (p = 0.123). Serum EGF levels were not associated with hematologic or cardiac adverse events. Progesterone receptor-positive patients had significantly higher serum EGF levels than progesterone receptor-negative patients (24.3 pg/mL (range 9.5-69.0 pg/mL) vs. 12.3 pg/mL (range 0.0-59.5 pg/mL); p = 0.006).ConclusionsOur data suggest that high serum EGF levels may be associated with good prognosis in patients with HER2-positive MBC receiving trastuzumab plus taxane chemotherapy. In addition, serum EGF levels were associated with progesterone receptor positivity.

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