Expression status of fatty acid synthase (FAS) but not HER2 is correlated with the differentiation grade and prognosis of esophageal carcinoma.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Fatty acid synthase (FAS) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) are overexpressed in a series of cancers. However, few studies have investigated the potential role of FAS and HER2 in esophageal carcinoma. The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression of FAS and HER2 and the possible link between FAS/HER2 expression and the pathological prognostic variables. METHODOLOGY: The frequency of FAS and HER2 expression was determined immunohistochemically. The overall survival rate was analysed by the Kaplan-Meier method and the log-rank test using SPSS 17.0 software. RESULTS: The majority of the cases were esophageal squamous cell carcinomas (n=142). FAS and HER2 overexpression in the studied cases are 73.2% and 14.1%, respectively. There was a significant difference in FAS expression regarding tumor differentiation and FAS overexpression showed its prognostic value for patients with different tumor differentiation. Meanwhile, HER2 overexpression did not significantly relate to the clinicopathological characteristics of the tumors, with the only exception of the surgical margins. CONCLUSIONS: FAS and HER2 overexpression are common in esophageal carcinomas. FAS overexpression showed its prognostic value for esophageal carcinoma patients with different tumor differentiation, which lead us to consider FAS-inhibitors as potential candidates for target-based adjuvant therapies.