Open AccessClinical implications for nestin protein expression in breast cancer
Author(s) -
Liu Caigang,
Chen Bo,
Zhu Jun,
Zhang Ruishan,
Yao Fan,
Jin Feng,
Xu Huimian,
Lu Ping
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
cancer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.035
H-Index - 141
eISSN - 1349-7006
pISSN - 1347-9032
DOI - 10.1111/j.1349-7006.2009.01422.x
Subject(s) - nestin , myoepithelial cell , breast cancer , estrogen receptor , progesterone receptor , immunohistochemistry , medicine , lymph node , metastasis , pathology , cancer research , cancer , ductal carcinoma , breast carcinoma , oncology , biology , stem cell , neural stem cell , genetics
( Cancer Sci 2010; 101: 815–819) Recently, it was observed that nestin is preferentially expressed in basal/myoepithelial cells of the mammary gland, and that this intermediate filament may be used as a myoepithelial marker. However, the clinical and prognostic implications of nestin as a marker for breast cancer are still unclear. We examined mastectomy specimens from 150 breast cancers and matching, adjacent non‐cancerous tissues using immunohistochemistry and western blotting. Overall, triple‐negative breast cancers – that is, breast cancers that do not express estrogen receptors (ER), progesterone receptors (PR), or human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2/neu) – had higher expression rates for nestin than the other breast cancers (57.14% vs 9.30%; P < 0.001). In triple‐negative breast cancers, significantly increased nestin expression rates were observed in patients with lymph node metastasis compared with those without node metastasis (25.00% vs 76.92%; P = 0.032). A similar phenomenon was observed for invasive ductal carcinomas compared with ductal carcinoma in situ (16.67% vs 73.33%; P = 0.046). Nestin expression was also found to be significantly related to ER, PR, and P53 expression ( P < 0.05). Nestin expression was associated with both shorter breast cancer‐specific survival and poor relapse‐free survival in the lymph node‐positive group ( P = 0.028 and P = 0.012 respectively). After Cox regression was carried out, nestin was not shown to be an independent prognostic factor for breast cancer. These findings substantiate the possibility of using nestin as a marker for triple‐negative breast cancer. Triple‐negative breast cancer progression is associated with nestin; however, the underlying mechanisms of this relationship require further investigation.