Abstract

The study was carried out to check the expression of HER-2 in colorectal carcinoma and to correlate the findings with the histological grades. Colorectal cancer is the third most common malignancy worldwide, and is the second leading cause of cancer related deaths. HER-2 is a useful antigenic marker in the immunological studies of colorectal cancer and it can be used for predicting the prognosis and treatment. Materials and methods: The present study was conducted for a period of 2 years from January 2021 to December 2022 on 33 histopathologically diagnosed cases of colorectal carcinoma in RIMS, Imphal, India. Immunohistochemistry was done to study the expression of HER-2 (Clone: EP3/PathnSitu biotechnologies). HER-2 expression was quantified according to staining pattern, staining intensity, percentage of tumor cells stained and statistical correlation was performed with its values and histopathological grades. Results: HER-2 was positive in 72.7% of the cases of colorectal carcinoma. It was expressed in 60% of the well differentiated, 82.6% of the moderately differentiated and 40% of the poorly differentiated colorectal carcinomas. Majority of the HER-2 positive cases showed isolated cytoplasmic staining (83.33%) and weak staining intensity (75%). A statistically significant correlation was noted among histologic type of CRC with HER-2 scoring (p= 0.016) and also among histologic grade with pattern of HER-2 staining (p=0.043). Conclusion: It was concluded that HER-2 is frequently expressed in colorectal carcinomas in Indian population and can be used as a reliable biomarker for cancer prognostication. However, further large-scale studies on Indian population are warranted for validating pre-existing information.

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