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Expression Patterns of ER, HER2, and NM23-H1 in Breast Cancer Patients with Different Menopausal Status

Correlations with Metastasis

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Abstract

Objective: This study was designed to analyze expression patterns of estrogen receptor (ER), human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2/ERBB2), and nonmetastatic protein 23 (NM23-H1/NME1) proteins in patients with invasive ductal carcinoma and different menopausal status to identify their relationships with axillary lymph node metastasis.

Materials and Methods: 213 pre-menopausal and 177 post-menopausal women diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma were evaluated for ER, HER2, and NM23-H1 protein expression by immunohistochemistry. When HER2 immunoreactivity was equivocal (category 2+), specimens were confirmed by fluorescence in situ hybridization.

Results: ER expression showed no correlation with menopausal status or lymph node metastasis (each p > 0.05). However, expression of ER was associated with negative expression of HER2 (r =−0.214, p < 0.05) and positive expression of NM23-H1 (r = 0.137, p < 0.05) in the pre-menopausal group. Over-expression of HER2 was correlated with menopausal status (r =−0.107, p < 0.05) and lymph node metastasis in the ER-negative post-menopausal group (r = 0.222, p < 0.05). NM23-H1 was associated with less lymph node metastasis in the ER-positive pre-menopausal group (r = −0.237, p < 0.05).

Conclusion: Our results indicated that expression patterns of ER, NM23-H1, and HER2 in primary breast cancer lesions warn that cells might have metastatic potential, which could assist clinicians to provide a more accurate prognosis and tailor therapeutic management for individual patients.

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Acknowledgments

Dong Su-Wei and Wang Lin contributed equally to this work.

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 30671904, 30760014, and 81060185), the New Century Excellent Talent Supporting Project of the Ministry of Education of China (grant no. NCET-08-0923), the Cultivation Program for Reserve Talent of Middle-Young Aged Academic and Technology Leaders of Yunnan Province (grant no. 2006Y01-12), the Key Program of Science and Technology Project of Kunming (grant no. 07S060202), the Yunnan Provincial Applied Basic Research Program (grant nos. 2007C0022R, 2007C0025R, and 2007C0023R), the Science and Technology Program of Yunnan Province (grant no. 2007C009Z), the Yunnan Provincial Key Program for Applied Basic Research (grant no. 2008CC006), the Yunnan Provincial Project for Introduction and Cultivation of High-Level Talents (grant no. 20080C014), and the Creative Talent Team Program for High Incidence Lung Cancer Prevention and Cure, Yunnan, China (grant no. 20080c014).

The authors thank Rebekah L. Craig for providing English language and editorial assistance in the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cancer Biotherapy Center, Third Affiliated Hospital of Kunming School of Medicine (Tumor Hospital of Yunnan Province), Kunming, Yunnan, 650118, People’s Republic of China

    Su-Wei Dong, Jun Sui, Xiao-Dan Chen, Zhi-Wei Zhang &  Xin Song

  2. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Lin Wang

  3. Department of Surgery, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, TX, USA

    Xi-Yun Deng

  4. Department of Biomedical Engineering Research Center, Kunming School of Medicine, Kunming, Yunnan, People’s Republic of China

    Xu Liu

  5. Third Affiliated Hospital of Kunming School of Medicine (Tumor Hospital of Yunnan Province), Kunming, Yunnan, People’s Republic of China

    Zhi-Min Liu, Jian-Hua Zhang & Qi-Sheng Yang

  6. Department of Pathology, First Affiliated Hospital of Inner Mongolia School of Medicine, Huhhot, Inner Mongolia, 010059, People’s Republic of China

    Yong-Feng Jia

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  1. Su-Wei Dong
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Correspondence to Yong-Feng Jia or Xin Song.

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Dong, SW., Wang, L., Sui, J. et al. Expression Patterns of ER, HER2, and NM23-H1 in Breast Cancer Patients with Different Menopausal Status. Mol Diag Ther 15, 211–219 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03256412

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