Objective: Overexpression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene has been detected in a large number of human tumors, in most of which the association between overexpression of EGFR and poor prognosis of the disease has been reported. However, the prognostic role of EGFR oncoprotein in cervical carcinoma remains controversial. The current study aimed to determine the prognostic value of EGFR in patients with cervical cancer.
Methods: We measured EGFR oncoprotein with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results were correlated to clinical data.
Results: The presence of measurable levels of EGFR in the tumor was found in all of the explored tumors. The levels varied widely from 31 to 2874 fmol/mg protein with a median at 582 fmol/mg protein, and Q1, Q2, and Q3 quartiles were 156, 562, and 1047, respectively. Overexpression of EGFR was associated with an impaired prognosis with respect to disease-free interval (P = 0.03) and overall survival (P = 0.04). Multivariate analysis revealed that tumor EGFR provided prognostic information with respect to disease-free interval (P = 0.002) and overall survival (P = 0.005) independently of the two established prognosticators, FIGO stage and lesion size.
Conclusion: Our results are consistent with the concept that EGFR confers prognostic information in addition to that provided by the established clinicopathologic parameters of FIGO stage and lesion size.