Immunohistologic detection of the epidermal growth factor receptor in human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

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Abstract
Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGF‐R) expression was studied immunohistologically in 38 patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. The EGF‐R was faintly expressed in basal and parabasal layers of normal esophageal epithelia and in cancer nests of 20 patients; it was strongly expressed in all areas of dysplastic epithelia and in cancer nests of 18 patients. The patients with strongly expressed EGF‐R had lymph node metastases more frequently, and their prognosis was poorer than those with faintly expressed EGF‐R. The EGF‐R expression showed a mosaic pattern in 17 patients and a diffuse pattern in 21 patients. The patients with a mosaic pattern had lymph node metastases more frequently and a worse prognosis than those with a diffuse pattern. Expression of EGF‐R in metastatic lymph nodes was similar to that in strongly expressing areas of primary cancers with a mosaic pattern. Thus EGF‐R expression may be an important indicator for malignancies of esophageal squamous cell carcinomas because primary cancer cells with strongly expressed EGF‐R metastasize to lymph nodes more frequently.