Expression of HER-2 and C-myc mRNA in benign prostatic hyperplasia and prostate cancer

Objective To study the HER- 2/C- myc mRNA expression in benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and prostate cancer (PCa) tissue, and to explore the value of HER-2/C-myc mRNA expression in PCa diagnosis. Methods A sensitive, real-time fluorescence quantitative (FQ) PCR assay was used to detect the differential expression of HER-2 and C- myc mRNA in prostate samples from 63 patients with PCa, 37 with BPH and 3 healthy controls. Results The expression levels of HER-2 (4.25± 0.03) and C-myc (7.24±0.06) in PCa tissue were significantly higher than those in BPH (both P<0.05). Conclusion The detection of HER-2 and C-myc mRNA expression by FQ-PCR may provide reliable and helpful information for the diagnosis of PCa. Key words: Prostatic neoplasms; Oncogenes; Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction; Genes; HER-2; Prostatic hyperplasia