Expression of the epidermal growth factor receptor gene in human intestinal metaplasia: A preliminary report

Background: The role of growth factors/receptors in the etiopathology and/or development of gastric cancer has recently come under scrutiny, since overexpression or amplification of the EGF system has been found in many intestinal type gastric cancers and related to a more aggressive behavior. Since these gastric carcinomas appear to develop from intestinal metaplasia, a study was planned to investigate whether overexpression of the EGF- receptor gene also occurred in intestinal metaplastic mucosa. Methods: Patients underwent upper GL endoscopy. Gastric biopsies for routine histology, Helicobacter pylori detection, quantification of intestinal metaplasia and EGF-R expression analysis were performed. A 30mer EGF-R specific oligonucleotide was end-labeled and used to probe a dot blot filter containing the RNA from the bioptic samples. Results: Though all the gastric samples transcribed the EGF-R gene to a detectable level, overexpression of the EGF-R gene was found in the metaplastic mucosa in a minority of patients. Conclusions: These preliminary findings suggest that overexpression of the EGF-R gene is infrequent in the metaplastic gastric mucosa.