c-erbB-2 oncogene product expression and prognosis in gastric carcinoma.

The prognostic value of c-erbB-2 protein expression was assessed retrospectively in 87 "curative" gastrectomy specimens from patients with gastric carcinoma. Tumours were stained immunohistochemically with the specific antibody 21N. Eight (9%) cases had strong membrane staining, all of which were of the intestinal type, and lymph node metastases, which showed concordance of staining in seven cases. In contrast to studies in breast cancer, positive cases showed a trend towards better five year survival, but this did not reach significance.