Breast Cancer Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Breast Cancer, including details on symptoms, genetics, screening, treatment, information.

The significance of c-erbB-2 overexpression and p53 expression in patients with axillary lymph node--negative breast cancer: a tissue microarray study.

Ko SS, Na YS, Yoon CS, Park JY, Kim HS, Hur MH, Lee HK, Chun YK, Kang SS, Park BW, Lee JH

Department of Surgery, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. drkoss@skku.edu

We conducted this study to examine whether the expression of c-erbB-2 and p53 is the prognostic indicator for patients with early-stage breast cancer in which axillary lymph node metastasis is absent. We examined 326 patients with early-stage breast cancer in which axillary lymph node metastasis is absent. Tissue microarrays were constructed. Following this, immunohistochemical staining was done for estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), c-erbB2, and p53. The results were as follows: (1) expression of c-erbB-2 was correlated with other clinicopathologic factors (eg, patient's age, presence of menopause, tumor size, histologic and nuclear grade, and presence of hormone receptors such as ER and PR); and (2) expression of p53 was correlated with survival rate, patient's age, presence of menopause, and tumor size. However, these results were not statistically significant. In conclusion, our results indicate that expression of c-erbB-2 and p53 did not have any prognostic value in patients with early-stage breast cancer in which axillary lymph node metastasis is absent.

Published 4 May 2007 in Int J Surg Pathol, 15(2): 98-109.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Breast Cancer Research Today. All Rights Reserved.