Expressions Of P53、Ki67and EGFR In Triple-negative Breast Cancer And Their Clinical Significance

PurposeBreast cancer, the incidence of which was reported to be7-10%, shows anupward trend in morbidity in recent years and heads the list of female malignanttumors in some of the big cities. Breast cancer is a malignant tumor of relativelyhigh heterogeneity. Triple-negative breast cancers (TNBC), defined as a moreaggressive subtype and accounting for about10.0%-20.8%of all breast cancers,neither express hormone receptors, nor overexpress HER2. Instead, they oftenoverexpress P53，Ki67and EGFR. The study of the molecular features of TNBC isof vital significance in anticipating prognosis, planning treatment and developingmolecule-targeting agents. In this study, by retrospectively analysing the clinicaldatas of the patients with TNBC and detecting the expression of P53, Ki67andEGFR by means of immunohistochemistry, we explored the relation between theclinicopathological characteristics of TNBC and those gene expressions. MethodsWe observed196randomized patients diagnosed with breast cancer in ourcenter from September2002to September2007.All those patients received nopreoperative treatment and underwent modified radical mastectomy and axillarylymph node dissection. All the patients had complete clinicopathological andfollow-up datas. Patients were ineligible if they had no clear profiles, no pathologicalexaminations, nor adequate datas. We analysed the age, menstrual status, histologicalgrade, metastatic lymph nodes, pathological type, tumor size, disease stage, recurrentand metastatic state. Expression of P53, Ki67and EGFR was detected withimmunohistochemistry. SPSS17.0statistical software was used for statisticalanalysis. The data were statistically analyzed by Chi-square test, and0.05is thethreshold for statistical significance.ResultsIn the196patients, there were35patients diagnosed with TNBC(18.0%).Compared with patients with non-TNBC, patients with TNBC were more likely tohave metastatic lymph nodes(P＜0.05), inferior histological grade（P＜0.05）, earlyrecurrence and metastasis（P＜0.05）. There was no statistical significance in age,menstrual status, pathological type, tumor size and clinical stage between TNBC andnon-TNBC(P＞0.05). The expression of P53, Ki67and EGFR were relatively74.0%(26/35)，51.0%(18/35)，65.7%（23/35） in TNBC,57.1%(92/161)，44.7%(7/161)，47.8%（77/161）in non-TNBC, and the difference was statisticallysignificant（P＜0.05）.In the cases of TNBC, the expression of P53was associatedwith histological grade, lymph node metastasis, tumor size and clinical stage（P＜0.05）, not associated with age and menstrual status（P＞0.05）, and the expressionof Ki67was associated with histological grade, lymph node metastasis, tumor sizeand clinical stage（P＜0.05）, not associated with age and menstrual status, and theexpression of EGFR was associated with histological grade, lymph node metastasis,tumor size and clinical stage（P＜0.05）, not associated with age and menstrual status ConclusionAs a particular type of breast cancer, triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) ismore aggressive than non-TNBC, and is characterized by inferior histological grade,high incidence of recurrence and metastasis, and poor prognosis.With the high expression of P53，Ki67and EGFR in TNBC, and the significantrelevance of those gene expressions to histological grade, lymph node metastasis,tumor size and clinical stage, we can arrive at the conclusion that those geneexpression could be used as important index in anticipating the prognosis of thosepatients with TNBC.