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Expression of small breast epithelial mucin (SBEM) protein in tissue microarrays (TMAs) of primary invasive breast cancers
Author(s) -
Skliris G P,
Hubé F,
Gheorghiu I,
Mutawe M M,
Penner C,
Watson P H,
Murphy L C,
Leygue E,
Myal Y
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
histopathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.626
H-Index - 124
eISSN - 1365-2559
pISSN - 0309-0167
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2559.2007.02955.x
Subject(s) - tissue microarray , oncology , breast cancer , medicine , immunohistochemistry , cohort , biomarker , breast disease , pathology , cancer research , cancer , biology , biochemistry
Aims: Small breast epithelial mucin (SBEM) is a recently described gene product that shows promise as a new breast biomarker. The aim was to investigate for the first time SBEM protein expression in a large cohort ( n = 300) of invasive breast cancers, its relationship to established clinical variables and its association with clinical outcome. Methods and results: Immunohistochemical analysis was performed on tissue microarrays consisting of 149 oestrogen receptor (ER) α− and 151 ERα+ breast cancers. Overall, 18% of tumours were SBEM+ ( n = 53/300). However, SBEM protein was more frequently observed in ER− (22%) than in ER+ cancers (13%; P = 0.049). A significant association with psoriasin/S100A7 expression ( P ≤ 0.0001) was observed in the entire cohort. SBEM was also positively associated with HER‐2 ( P = 0.046) in ER− cancers, and increased levels of SBEM were strongly associated with higher tumour grade ( P = 0.0015). Furthermore, SBEM expression showed a trend towards an association with reduced overall survival and relapse‐free survival in the ER+ cohort ( P = 0.063 and P = 0.072, respectively). Conclusions: Our results suggest that SBEM may identify a unique subset of breast cancers with poor prognosis and may have future implications for therapeutic management of this disease.