Expression and significance of Rab5a and APPL1 in breast cancer / 中华肿瘤杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the expression of Rab5a and APPL1 in breast cancer and fibroma, and analyze their correlation with HER-2 expression, metastasis and development of breast cancer.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Rab5a and APPL1 in paraffin embedded tissues of 74 breast carcinomas and 40 breast fibromas were detected by immunohistochemistry. Their relationship with metastasis, pathological grade, and HER-2 expression in breast cancer was determined by statistical analysis.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>There was no expression or low expression of Rab5a and APPL1 in the breast fibroma, but the positive expression rate of Rab5a and APPL1 in the breast carcinomas were 91.9% and 83.8%, respectively. No significant difference in expression of Rab5a and APPL1 was found between metastatic and non-metastatic groups, and pathological grade I/II and grade III groups. But Rab5a was overexpressed in HER-2-positive group compared with that in the HER-2-negative group.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Rab5a and APPL1 are overexpressed in breast cancer, and are positively correlated with the HER-2 expression. These proteins may influence the growth and proliferation of breast cancer cells by HER-2 signal transduction.</p>