Prognostic Worth of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) in Patients with Head and Neck Tumors

Precious Barnes; F A Yeboah; Jinling Zhu; Roland Osei Saahene; Christian Obirikorang; Michael Buenor Adinortey; Benjamin Amoani; Foster Kyei; Patrick Akakpo; Yaw Asante Awuku

doi:10.1155/2020/5615303

Prognostic Worth of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) in Patients with Head and Neck Tumors

J Cancer Epidemiol. 2020 Nov 12:2020:5615303. doi: 10.1155/2020/5615303. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physician Assistant Studies, College of Health and Allied Sciences School of Allied Health Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Ghana.
² Department of Molecular Medicine, School of Medical Sciences, College of Health Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana.
³ Department of Biology, School of Medical Sciences, Jiamusi University China, China.
⁴ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medical Sciences, College of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Ghana.
⁵ Department of Biochemistry, School of Biological Sciences, College of Agricultural and Natural Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Ghana.
⁶ Department of Biomedical Sciences, School of Allied Health Sciences, College of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Ghana.
⁷ Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, School of Biological Sciences, College of Agricultural and Natural Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Ghana.
⁸ Department of Pathology, School of Medical Sciences, College of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Ghana.
⁹ Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medical Sciences, University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ghana.

Abstract

Introduction: Head and neck tumors (HNT) are tumors that normally occur at the head and neck region of the body. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) has been found to be highly expressed in breast and other tumors; therefore, there is the need to investigate the level of EGFR expression among patients with head and neck tumors in Ghana.

Method: The level of EGFR expression was determined in head and neck tumor and control head and neck tissues with quantitative real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry analysis.

Results: The level of EGFR expressions was high in tumor tissues than in the control tissues. There was a significant difference of p value 0.025 among the ages >40 and ≤ 40 when the high and low level of EGFR was compared in the head and neck malignant tumor. The area under the curve for the high expression of EGFR among the malignant head and neck tumors was 0.901 with a specificity of 86.4%.

Conclusion: EGFR can serve as a prognostic marker in monitoring patients with HNT as well as a molecular therapeutic target.