The Relationship Between Phenotype Of Stem Cells CD44⁺/CD24^-/low And Prognosis About Triple-negative Invasive Breast Tumor

Objective To investigate the expressions of CD44⁺/CD24^-/low phenotype in human triple-negative breast cancer and the relationship of CD44⁺/CD24^-/low with clinic pathological features and prognosis in the triple-negative breast cancer.Methods 53 paraffin specimens of triple negative breast cancer patients were collected from January 2008 to December 2009. 53 paraffin specimens from non-triple negative breast cancer patients of same period corresponding clinical staging were randomly selected.The expression of CD44⁺/CD24^-/low phenotype between the triple negative breast cancer patients and non-triple negative breast cancer patients by immunohistochemical technique for CD44 and CD24 staining were statistically analyzed so as to explore the relationship of CD44⁺/CD24^-/low with clinic pathological features and prognosis in the triple-negative breast cancer.Results The positive rate of CD44⁺/CD24^-/low in the triple-negative breast cancer of 54.7%. Discoveried that the proportion of CD44⁺/CD24^-/low cells in the triple negative breast cancer patients group was significantly higher than those of in the non-triple negative breast cancer patients. The patients with grade III were 15 patients（28.3%） in the TNBC group,and were 5 patients（9.4%） in the NTNBC group（ P < 0. 05）.In TNBC group, significant differences（P<0.05） were observed in recurrence 24.5%, systemic organ merastases 17% in the CD44⁺/CD24^-/low（+） higher than in the CD44⁺/CD24^-/low（-）.In TNBC group, significant differences（P<0.05） were observed in the 5-year OS 62%, DFS 51% in the CD44⁺/CD24^-/low（+） lower than in the CD44⁺/CD24^-/low（-）.Conclusion The recurrence, distant metastasis and poor prognosis of triple-negative breast cancer was associated with the elevated expression of CD44⁺/CD24^-/low.