• Thomas A Buchholz, Xiaoyu Tu, K Kian Ang, Francisco J Esteva, Henry M Kuerer, Lajos Pusztai, Massimo Cristofanilli, S Eva Singletary, Gabriel N Hortobagyi, and Aysegul A Sahin.
• Department of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA. tbuchhol@mdanderson.org
• Cancer. 2005 Aug 15; 104 (4): 676-81.

BackgroundTo the authors' knowledge there are few data that correlate the expression of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) with the outcome of patients who have breast carcinoma and are treated with anthracycline chemotherapy.MethodsPretreatment tumor tissue samples were available from 82 patients who had locally advanced breast carcinoma and were treated on 2 protocols investigating neoadjuvant 5-fluorouracil, doxorubicin, and cyclophosphamide chemotherapy. Immunohistochemical staining for EGFR (diluted 1:50) was performed, and the staining results were interpreted without knowledge of outcome.ResultsFourteen tumors (17%) were EGFR-positive, and 68 tumors (83%) were EGFR-negative. EGFR expression did not correlate with clinical stage (P = 0.361), HER-2/neu overexpression (P = 0.503), estrogen or progesterone receptor status (P = 0.631 and P = 0.838, respectively), nuclear grade (P = 0.448), or proliferative index (P = 0.769). Patients who had EGFR-positive tumors had a worse 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) rate (46% vs. 76%; P = 0.026) and overall survival (OS) rate (46% vs. 76%; P = 0.037) compared with patients who had EGFR-negative tumors. The pathologic complete response rate did not differ between the 2 groups (P = 0.389), although patients with EGFR-positive disease more commonly had > or = 4 positive lymph nodes after chemotherapy (64% vs. 29%; P = 0.028). EGFR expression continued to show a significant correlation with poorer DFS and OS in a Cox regression analysis model that included the presence or absence of four or more lymph nodes and EGFR status.ConclusionsEGFR expression may have prognostic significance in patients with locally advanced breast carcinoma who are treated with anthracycline chemotherapy. These data warrant further studies aimed at correlating EGFR expression and outcome in patients who have breast carcinoma treated with doxorubicin-based chemotherapy.

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