Expression Pattern and Prognostic Correlation of BAG - 1 Protein in Breast Cancer / 대한암학회지

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to understand the expression of BAG-1 in the human breast cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We studied its expression in one hundred and thirteen patients diagnosed with breast cancer in Dong-A university hospital between 1992 and 1996 by performing immunohistochemical staining with BAG-1 monoclonal antibody. RESULTS: Of the 113 breast carcinoma examined, 62.0% were positive for BAG-1 cyto- plasmic expression, 28.0% were positive for nuclear BAG-1 expression and 9.7% were positive for both BAG-1 cytoplasmic and nuclear expression. The higher histologic grade was correlated with the higher cytoplasmic expression (p<0.05). Except for histologic grade, no correlation was observed between BAG-1 expression and conventional prognostic factors such as age, menopausal status, metastatic status of the axillary lymh nodes, cathepsin-D, p53, C-erbB-2, DNA ploidy, S-phase fraction, PCNA (proliferating cell nuclear antigen). CONCLUSION: The high histologic grade was found to correlate with positive BAG-1 cyto- plasmic staining which did not correlate with conventional prognostic factors. Our data indicate that furthermore investigation is warranted to define the role of BAG-1 as an meaningful prognostic factor in patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer.