Evaluation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma and lymph node metastases: Implications for EGFR targeted therapy

16510 Background: Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) overexpression is proved to be an independent predictor of poor clinical outcome in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma (NPC). Expression level of EGFR is also important for EGFR-Targeted therapy but yet unexplored in the primary NPC tumors and lymph node metastases. Aim of this study was to correlate EGFR expression levels in primary tumors and lymph node metastases in NPC to find out whether assessing EGFR status on primary cancer is an effective tool for planning EGFR targeted therapy. Methods: Archived tissue samples of primary tumor and corresponding lymph node metastases of 86 NPC patients (67 males, 19 females; median age = 52 years) diagnosed between 1997 and 2006 were collected from Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center. Immunohistochemical evaluation of EGFR expression in primary tumors and related lymph node metastasis was performed. According to the UICC 2002 staging system for nasopharyngeal carcinoma, stages Iib, III, IVa, IVb and IVc included 43...