The Role of Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor-2 in Benign and Malignant Thyroid Diseases

Abstract

ERB2 (Her2/neu) is a proto-oncogene, which has the susceptibility to transform into oncogene whenever it is subjected to an insult. Her2 gene is located on the long arm of chromosome 17 and belongs to the epidermal growth factor receptor family (EGFR/ERBB). This gene is responsible for providing instructions to produce the Her2/neu protein, which plays a role in cell to cell communications via the signal transduction process. The Her2/neu overexpression has been associated with the poor prognosis of breast cancer and decreased survival rate. Few researchers suggest that it might be associated with the development of other non-cancerous diseases such as autoimmune thyroid disorders, but the data is still scanty and contradicting. A primarily histological work was performed to study the expression of Her2/neu in different autoimmune thyroid cases. It showed high expression of the cellular ERB2 receptor in various thyroid tissue sections. Therefore, we aim in this project to further investigate the occurrence of HER-2 expression on a larger scale of thyroid samples, including benign and malignant thyroid diseases by using Immunohistochemistry as well as using enzyme linked Immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to detect auto-antibodies against HER-2 in benign thyroid disorders.