Expression of epithelial-cadherin in triple negative breast cancer and its prognostic significance / 肿瘤研究与临床

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the expression of epithelial-cadherin (E-cad) in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) and its effect on the prognosis of TNBC.Methods:The data of 242 female patients with TNBC in Shanxi Provincial Cancer Hospital from April 2009 to April 2012 were collected. Immunohistochemical staining was used to detect the expression of E-cad. Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazard regression model were conducted to analyze the effect of E-cad on the prognosis of TNBC patients.Results:The low expression rate of E-cad in TNBC patients was 59.5% (144/242) and its expression was related to clinical TNM stage and lymph node metastasis (both P < 0.05). The median overall survival time of 242 patients was 70.7 months (7.2-95.9 months), and 50 (20.7%) patients died. The 3-year and 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) rate was 81.5% and 78.1%, and the overall survival (OS) rate was 86.5% and 81.1%, respectively. The DFS and OS rate in the E-cad low expression group were lower than those in the E-cad high expression group, and the difference was statistically significant (both P < 0.01). Cox regression model demonstrated that E-cad was an independent prognostic factor of DFS and OS ( HR=0.144, 95% CI 0.057-0.365, P < 0.01; HR=0.196, 95% CI 0.073-0.710, P < 0.01). Conclusion:The low expression of E-cad is correlated with metastasis and the poor prognosis of TNBC, which could be an independent prognostic factor for TNBC patients.