Urothelial carcinoma, a common urinary system malignancy with marked heterogeneity, leads to significantly varied clinical outcomes among patients, creating major treatment challenges. HER2, a key oncogene, has long been a critical therapeutic target in cancers like breast cancer—abnormal expression is seen in 20%–30% of breast cancer cases, and targeted therapies here have achieved notable success. But what role does HER2 play in urothelial carcinoma?
A Chinese research team recently studied 111 urothelial carcinoma paraffin specimens. Using immunohistochemistry, they detected HER2 protein expression and analyzed its links to clinicopathological features such as gender, age, tumor invasiveness, and pathological grade.
Results showed 82.88% (92/111) of urothelial carcinoma tissues expressed HER2. Notably, HER2 positivity (immunohistochemistry 2+ and 3+) varied significantly with pathological grades (
p = 0.021): 65.9% in high-grade tumors versus 41.4% in low-grade ones. However, no significant associations were found with gender, age, tumor size, muscle invasion, lymph node metastasis, or clinical stage.
This study reveals the expression characteristics of HER2 in urothelial carcinoma and its close relationship with pathological grade, laying a foundation for the subsequent application of HER2-targeted therapy in urothelial carcinoma.
The research results, entitled “
Expression of HER2 in urothelial carcinoma and its significance”, were published in
Current Urology (published on May 30, 2025).
DOI:
10.1097/CU9.0000000000000249