Significance of chemokine receptor CXCR3 expression in breast cancer / 中华病理学杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the expression of CXCR3 and its association with clinicopathologic features in breast carcinoma.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The expression level of CXCR3 in 18 samples of breast cancer and corresponding normal tissues was investigated using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and real-time RT-PCR analysis. Immunohistochemistry was carried out to examine the expression of CXCR3 in 80 breast cancers, 20 fibroadenomas and 15 normal breast tissues.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>(1) RT-PCR and real-time RT-PCR analysis showed a higher level of CXCR3 in breast cancer tissues than that in the corresponding normal breast tissues (P < 0.05). (2) Immunohistochemistry analysis showed that the positive rate of CXCR3 in breast cancer tissues was significantly higher than that in fibroadenomas and the normal breast tissues (P < 0.05). The expression level of CXCR3 in the lymph node-positive group was higher than that in the lymph node-negative group (P < 0.05). The expression of CXCR3 was positively correlated with the number of lymph nodes involved by metastasis, tumor size and pTNM tumor stage (P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Chemokine receptor CXCR3 was up-regulated in breast cancer, and was associated with the progression of breast cancer. CXCR3 might be a novel molecular marker to predict lymph node metastasis and prognosis of breast cancer.</p>