ABSTRACT
@#[Abstract] Objective: To investigate the relationship between expression of MICA/B (MHC class I chain-related proteinA/B) and disease-free survival (DFS) of patients with HER2+(human epidermal growth factor receptor 2) breast cancer tissue. Methods: Twenty six cases of corresponding para-cancerous tissue and 100 cases of HER2+ breast cancer tissue that preserved in wax at Zhengzhou People’ s Hospital Affiliated to Southern Medical University from January 2009 to June 2010 were collected for this study. Expression of MICA/ B in these tissue samples was detected by immunohistochemistry; and the relationship between MICA/B expression with clinicopathologic features as well as DFS was analyzed with Kaplan-Meier survival curve. Results: The expression of MICA/B in adjacent paracancerous tissues was negative (0/26), however, it was highly positive in cancer tissues (92/100), and the percentage with high expression was 65%(65/100), the difference was significant (P<0.05). High MICA/B expression rate in stage I was significantly higher than that in stage Ⅱ-Ⅲ (77.55% vs 52.94%， P<0.05), and the high expression rate in stage T1 was also significantly higher than that in stage T2-T4 (75.00% vs 52.27%， P<0.05). High MICA/B expression rate in ER+, PR+ group (with positive number≥1%) was significantly lower than that in ER- , PR-group (ER： 52.38% vs 74.14%，PR： 51.35% vs 73.02%， all P<0.05). MICA/B expression was correlated with clinical stages, the expression of ER, PR and tumor size (all P<0.05), but not associated with menopausal status, histological grade and lymph node metastasis (all P>0.05). Over-expression of MICA/B was closely associated with much better 6-year DFS rate in patients no matter with or without targeted therapy (the targeted group: 90.6% vs 72.2%; the untargeted group: 78.4% vs 58.8%, all P<0.05). Conclusion: Over-expression of MICA/B in HER2+ breast cancer tissue is closely related to DFS, which may be served as a potential prognosis indicator for patients with HER2+ breast cancer.