Pathological characteristics and HER2 status of gastric cancer in Chinese high-incidence area

A retrospective analysis was conducted on the positive rate of HER2 in gastric cancer in the Chinese high-incidence area of Wuwei from 2015 to 2024. The pathological characteristics of HER2-positive gastric cancer were explored to provide a basis for precise diagnosis and treatment in high-incidence areas of gastric cancer. A retrospective study design was adopted to collect and analysis the HER2 expression status of gastric cancer surgical specimens from 2015 to 2024. A total of 416 gastric cancer surgical specimens were collected for HER2 detection, and the positive rate of HER2 was 9.13% (38/416), including 33 males (9.68%) and 5 females (6.67%), with no statistical significance (P >.05). There were 24 (8.63%) HER2 positive patients over 60 years old, 11 (10.67%) HER2 positive patients between 50 and 59 years old, and 3 (8.6%) HER2 positive patients under 50 years old, with no statistical significance (P >.05). In cTNM stages, HER2 was positive in 7 patients (5.65%) in stage Ⅰ, 16 patients (10.32%) in stage Ⅱ, 14 patients (10.61%) in stage Ⅲ, and 1 patient (20%) in stage Ⅳ, with no statistical difference between groups (P >.05). The positive rate of tubular adenocarcinoma HER2 in WHO classification was 10.5%. Other tissue types were 0%, there were differences (P <.05); The positive rate of HER2 in well-differentiated adenocarcinoma was 10.84%, in moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma 16.44%, and in poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma 8.25%, with a difference between moderately and poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma (P <.05). The positive rate of HER2 in T3 infiltration depth was 15.97% higher than that in T1/T2/T4 (P <.05). The positive rate of HER2 in cardiac/fundus was 16.26% higher than that in other sites (P <.05). The proportion of patients with intestinal stype gastric cancer was the largest in Lauren classification (59.13%), but the HER2 positive rate of mixed type was significantly higher than that of other Lauren classification (P <.001). Patients with lymph node metastasis (13%) were significantly higher than those without lymph node metastasis (4.66%), and the difference was statistically significant (P <.01). The research data indicate that correlation between the expression of HER2 in areas with a high incidence of gastric cancer and the pathological characteristics.