Expression of E-cadherin in primary breast cancer and its correlation with prognostic factors

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women and after lung cancer, it is the second cause of death in women. Different biological markers are being used for determination of prognosis and patients' responses to the therapy regimes. E-cadherin is one of these markers. The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of E-cadherin expression in primary breast cancer and its correlation with the grade, size of tumor and axillary lymph nodes involved. This cross sectional study was performed on 85 patients with primary breast cancer who were admitted in Mostafa Khomeini Hospital in Tehran, Iran [2003-2007]. One section was prepared from the tumoral tissue and lymph nodes sections from all patients and they were stained with H and E. In another tissue section, E-cadherin was evaluated by a immunohistochemical method and then the tumor size, its grade and the number of lymph nodes involved were determined. The data were analyzed with SPSS software 11.5, using Chi-square, Mann -Whitney and Spearman correlation tests. Our data showed that 95.3% of the samples were positive for E-cadherin and 67.1% of the patients had lymph nodes involvement. The average size of the tumor was found 3.09 +/- 1.33 cm. In this study, 41% of the tissue samples were stained with E-caherin more than 75% [3+]. No significant relationship was found between E-cadherin expression and related variables, but a significantly reverse relationship was found between E-cadherin expression and the grade, tumor size and the number of lymph nodes involved [P<0.01]. Considering the results of this study, it seems that the reduction in E-cadherin expression in tumor cells, leads to increase in tumor size, its grade and the number of lymph nodes involved