Relationship between EGFR Over-expression and linicopathologic Characteristics in Squamous Cell Carcinoma f the Esophagus: A Meta-analysis

Over-expression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) has been identified as a common featureassociated with clinical outcome in many types of cancer, including squamous cell carcinoma of the oesophagus(SCCO). However, the clinical importance of EGFR over-expression in SCCO remains unsettled as conflictingresults exist. Therefore we carried out the present meta-analysis of published studies for clarification. A total of13 studies including 1, 150 patients were enrolled. EGFR over-expression was positive in 722 of these cases. WithEGFR over-expression, patients had higher depth of invasion, vascular invasion, and poor prognosis. However,expression had no relation with degree of differentiation, histological grade, lymph node metastasis, clinicalstage or lymphatic invasion. EGFR over-expression is probably a valuable predictor for the T stage, vascularinvasion and OS, and it could be used as a poor prognosis indicator for the esophageal SCC patients. Targetingtherapy to EFGR should be considered to the combined treatment in SCCO.