Background
Cervical cancer represents the second most frequent malignancy in women worldwide, particularly in developing countries [
1]. While curable in early stages, the prognosis for advanced stage disease is poor [
2]. Radiation has been the gold standard of therapy for many decades. Nowadays, concurrent cisplatin-based chemoradiotherapy has been considered as the standard therapeutic modality for locally advanced cervical cancer [
3‐
6]. However, such treatment remains suboptimal with histopathological residual tumor observed in 40–50% of patients [
7,
8]. Those presenting with recurrent or metastatic disease have limited treatment options [
2,
9], and the 5-year survival is less than 5% [
10]. There is a clear need for novel, more effective therapeutical strategies to improve overall survival and the quality of life for advanced, recurrent and disseminated cervical cancer. Thus, the testing of molecular targeted therapies against cervical cancer is a logical step to follow [
11]. Another strategy is receptor-mediated tumor targeted radiotherapy [
12], which is based on the delivery of therapeutically relevant radionuclides directly to disseminated tumor cells, with hopefully minimal damage to normal tissues.
Proteins overexpressed on the surface of tumor cells can be selectively targeted. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) are among the most often targeted proteins. The presence of EGFR and HER2 receptors have been associated with accelerated tumor progression and therapeutic resistance for several types of malignancies, including cervical cancer. The causal relationship of EGFR and HER2 receptor network to disease progression and resistance to therapy provides a rationale for therapeutic intervention.
Nowadays, EGFR targeted drugs, both chimeric monoclonal antibody Cetuximab (Erbitux) and the small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors (e.g. Iressa and Tarceva) [
13‐
15], have been approved by FDA. Clinical trials of Cetuximab, either alone or in combination with radiotherapy/chemotherapy, have recently demonstrated efficacy in patients with head and neck cancer, colorectal cancer and lung cancer [
16‐
18]. The humanized monoclonal antibody trastuzumab (Herceptin), which is the first clinically available oncogene-targeted therapeutic agent for treatment of solid tumors, has boosted the interest of physicians in targeting therapy, as therapeutic benefit was proved in patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer [
19]. On the basis of the preliminary success, clinical trials are currently investigating the therapeutic potential of molecular targeted drugs in other human malignancies including cervical cancer [
20].
In a recent phase II trial reported by Goncalves
et al, patients with recurring locoregionally advanced or metastatic cervical cancer were treated with gefitinib 500 mg/day, EGFR expression levels by means of immunohistochemistry did not correlate with tumor response and disease control [
20]. This is not unexpected, since EGFR expression does not necessarily correlate with EGFR receptor activation. Other molecular alterations, such as EGFR gene amplification, mutations of the tyrosine kinase domain, and EGFR phosphorylation status, might be useful indicators for the response to EGFR signaling inhibition. However, in the case of targeted radionuclide therapy, tumor cells are mainly killed with delivered radiation and therapeutic efficiency is only dependent on the receptor expression and not whether the receptor function can be blocked or not. Thus, receptor overexpression is considered necessary for the success of targeted radiotherapy.
Previous studies have shown EGFR to be frequently expressed in primary cervical cancer [
21‐
25], and that EGFR expression is correlated with poor prognosis [
25‐
27]. Positive staining of HER2 in cervical cancer has been reported to vary wildly in the earlier studies [
28‐
30]. However, according to the recent reports using HercepTest grading system, HER2 overexpression was considered to be a rare event in primary cervical cancer [
31,
32].
The literature was reviewed for similar investigations, but no other studies comparing primary cervical cancers and their corresponding metastases regarding EGFR and HER2 were found by the authors. It is still unclear whether the metastases lose, gain, or retain the receptor status relative to the primary tumors. For a receptor to be of interest for targeting, similar expression in both the primary tumors and the disseminated lesions are required. Investigation into the receptor status between metastases and the primary tumors will provide valuable information on whether these receptors are suitable as target for diagnostic and/or therapeutic procedures. In the present study, the expression of EGFR and HER2 was investigated immunohistochemically in a series of 53 primary cervical cancers and corresponding lymph node metastases.
Discussion
The aim of this study was to evaluate the EGFR and HER2 receptor expression, using immunohistochemical analyses, in primary cervical cancers and determine if the expression is retained in lymph node metastases. The goal was to evaluate whether any of these receptors are suitable as target for radionuclide based imaging and radiation therapy.
Overexpression of EGFR in cervical cancer has been reported to be common (ranges from 26–72%) [
21‐
25]. However, it is unclear whether metastases lose, gain, or retain EGFR status relative to the primary cervical tumors. Studies on the EGFR status of metastatic lymph node of cervical cancer will provide precious knowledge to evaluate whether the receptor is of interest for diagnostic and/or therapeutic procedures or not.
EGFR overexpression (2+/3+) was found in 64% of the primary lesions. Our result is consistent with the former findings of high EGFR overexpression in cervical cancer [
23‐
25]. Furthermore, we found that the frequency of EGFR overexpression in lymph node metastases was approximately as high as in the primary lesions of cervical cancer. Although 15 changes were observed, only 4 patients with EGFR overexpression in the primary tumor had lower EGFR scores in the corresponding lymph node metastases. Moreover, in another two patients, EGFR overexpression was gained in lymph node metastases while the primary tumors had low scores. Actually, immunohistochemistry is not a strickly quantitative method. Methodological differences, e.g. in fixation procedures, retrieval methods, and antibodies, are likely to affect the sensitivity of EGFR staining. In addition, the criteria for defining positive EGFR expression could also account for part of the discrepancies between the primaries and metastases. For example, if membrane staining in more than 10% of the tumor cells was defined as positive EGFR expression, regardless of pattern of cellular membrane staining (complete or incomplete), only 3 changes could be observed: two cases from positive to negative when the primary lesions were compared to the corresponding lymph node metastases, and one case changed the other way around. Nevertheless, it seems that, in a majority of the studied cases, EGFR expression retained in the metastases.
To our knowledge, the question of EGFR status in lymph node metastases versus primary cervical cancer has not been addressed. From our results, it seems that EGFR expression is stable when comparing the lymph node metastases with the primary cervical cancers, which is surprising in the light of the genomic instability that characterizes most malignant tumors. Although the current report is limited by the small sample size, our observations suggest that EGFR expression in the primary tumors, which can readily be determined after surgery or biopsy, might predict EGFR-positive metastases with a reasonably high probability.
In EGFR targeted radionuclide therapy, possible side effects to normal tissues should be taken into consideration, as EGFR is commonly expressed in normal cells. It might be possible to minimize the toxicity and improve therapeutic efficiency by using suitable targeting agents with low uptake in critical normal tissues, and suitable biodistribution. EGFR targeted radiotherapy might also be possible if a tumor and its metastases have a strong EGFR expression to ensure higher tumor uptake than in most normal tissues or local delivery of the targeting agent can be made.
There are conflicting results regarding the frequency of HER2 expression in cervical cancer. High positive rate of HER2 expression in cervical cancer has been reported in the earlier studies [
28‐
30]. For example, Lee
et al [
28] found HER2 expression in 29.7% of the analyzed cases. Nevin
et al [
29] and Niibe
et al [
30] reported HER2 expression in about 40% of the studied cases. However, according to the recent reports by Chavez-Blanco
et al [
31] and Kim
et al [
32], HER2 expression was observed in only 3.2% (1/31) and 0% (0/227), respectively, of the studied squamous cell cervical cancer cases. The original aim of the present study was to compare HER2 expression between the primary uterine cervical tumors and the corresponding lymph node metastases. Surprisingly, none of the cases expressed HER2 protein, neither in the primary lesions nor in the metastases. The use of positive controls during immunohistochemical procedures rules out the hypothesis of false-negative reactions. The application of HercepTest scoring criterion, the official FDA scoring guidelines for predictive assessment in breast cancer, might be an important reason for the low positive rate of HER2 expression. Using the standardized HercepTest scoring criterion, HER2 expression is considered a rare event in cervical cancer [
31,
32]. Our data are consistent with these findings. Therefore, HER2 appears to be of poor interest as a potential target in the treatment of cervical cancer.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors' contributions
LS participated in the design of the study, carried out the clinical and immunohistochemical data analysis; YS and LS interpreted the histological and immunohistochemical data; XW, ZY and DX contribute with the clinical data; and QW conceived the study, interpreted the immunohistochemical data and wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.