Correlation of HER2 With p53 and p63 in Urothelial Bladder Carcinoma

Cureus. 2023 Apr 23;15(4):e38018. doi: 10.7759/cureus.38018. eCollection 2023 Apr.

Abstract

Urothelial carcinomas account for the majority of all primary bladder cancers, making bladder cancer the second most frequent genitourinary malignancy after prostate cancer. Bladder cancer risk rises with age and most of them return after resection due to their multifocal distribution, and they often develop in superficial locations. Like many other cancers, bladder carcinoma is associated with a few tumor markers that have been evaluated in the past. They include p53, p63, and HER2. This study was conducted on 88 patients suspected of urinary bladder carcinoma. This prospective study was done at the Department of Pathology, Osmania General Hospital, Hyderabad from August 2017 to July 2019. Of the 88 patients, 76 were diagnosed with bladder carcinoma and the remaining 12 were non-neoplastic. The primary neoplastic lesions of the urinary bladder were predominantly seen in patients older than 40 years and were found to be statistically significant (p<0.01). Of the 34 cases of high-grade papillary urothelial carcinoma (PUC), 26 (76.47%) were males, eight cases (23.53%) were females, while among the 25 cases of low-grade PUC, 20 cases (80%) were males, and five cases (20%) were females. In seven cases of squamous cell carcinoma, six cases (85.71%) were males and only one case (14.29%) was female. Of the two cases of adenocarcinoma, male and female gender accounted for one case each (50%). The two cases of papillary urothelial neoplasm of low malignant potential were males in the study. On the whole, the primary urinary bladder lesions are more predominant in the males (77.63%) than the females (22.37%). Overexpression of p53 is negatively connected to p63 expression, and HER2 and p53 were strongly associated with high tumor grade in urothelial carcinoma.

Keywords: bladder carcinoma; her2 neu protein; p53 oncogene; p63 oncogene; urothelial carcinoma.