ABSTRACT
Background and purpose:BCRP was recently discoveried as a membrane transport protein affiliated with multiple drug resistance(MDR).The aim of present study was to investigate the expression of breast cancer resistance protein(BCRP) in primary breast carcinoma and its potential significance of guiding breast carcinoma chemotherapy and to determine whether such expression can be used as a predict factor for chemosensitivity.Methods:Expression of BCRP in 31 primary breast carcinoma tissues was determined by flow cytometry.The relationship between the expression of BCRP with the clinicpathological characteristics and the prognosis of breast carcinoma patients was also analyzed.Results:The expression level of BCRP was higher in breast carcinoma tissue(0.282581?0.183686) than control group(0.03125?1.000905).There was no statistical difference befween BCRP and state of ER,PR,C-erbB_2 and EGFR in breast carcinoma tissues.In addition,it was the same situation no matter whether axillary lymph node was metastatasied or not.Conclusions:The results suggest that BCRP is expressed in primary breast carcinoma and is a cell membrane protein independent on ER,PR,c-erb-B-2,EGFR.Based chemotherapy is more effective for the patients with the overexpression of BCRP in primary breast carcinoma tissue.